A Draft Summary Note on the proceedings of Consultation on RTI Act at Bhubaneswar in the First Day

A Draft Summary Note on the proceedings of Consultation on RTI Act

at Bhubaneswar in the First Day (12^th Oct. 2005).

Inaugural session:

Started at 11 am it continued up to 2 pm with Ms. Supriya Akerkar, RM in the Chair. Sri A.B. Tripathy, Special Rapporteur to NHRC, Sri Chitta Behera a Social scientist, Sri Digambar Mohanty, Commisioner-cum-Secretary, I & PR and Sri Manmohan Praharaj, Addl,. DG (Intelligence) Orissa addressed the Session besides Sri Pradip Pradhan, Convener of the Consultation on behalf of the Orissa Right to Food Campaign.

Resource persons and participants were each provided with a pack of background materials that consisted of

A booklet containing both English and Oriya versions of the RTI Act 2005
A 30- page discussion paper entitled ‘Towards an effective operationalisation of the RTI Act 2005 in Orissa’ that carried a quick on-line review of the FAQ document of the Ministry of Personnel, GOI and 5 articles in Oriya each dealing with an important aspect of the RTI Act 2005
A draft note on the points at issue for formulation of appropriate rules under the Act for Orissa

Sri Pradip Pradhan after introducing the resource persons present spoke a few words on the need and significance of the State level Consultation. The Chairperson, Ms. Supriya Akerkar, in her opening remarks made in Hindi observed that the Consultation aimed at facilitating the formulation of a right set of rules under the RTI Act 2005 for Orissa by the State Government taking the inputs from the civil society groups working in different places among the marginalized sections of population across the State. She specifically emphasized the need for harmonization of the existing laws, rules and regulations handed down since colonial days and meant to maintain official secrecy, with the thrust of the new RTI Act given to transparency, openness and accountability of the public servant before the citizens. A draft note in English containing salient suggestions for rule making under the Act, which was the substance of her talk in Hindi, was also circulated among the participants.

Sri A.B. Tripathy, Speical Rapporteur, NHRC in his talk stressed the long background to the current legislations on right to information and role of different central/State Governments, Supreme Court and civil society groups in promoting the campaign for an appropriate transparency law for the whole country at different stages in post-independence period. While describing the current RTI Law as a better and more workable and effective one than its predecessor FOI Act 2002, Sri Tripathy felt that its effective operationalisation across the country and specifically in a backward State like Orissa posed a major challenge to the Government and the latter should take the inputs from the civil society groups for the purpose. And the civil society groups in turn as ever in the past should come forward to help out the Government at this critical juncture.

Then Sri Chitta Behera spoke on the kind of rules under the RTI Act that the people of Orissa expect from the State Government and discussed some serious loopholes in the Act itself which needed to be plugged in by way of formulation of appropriate rules. According to Sri Behera the major loopholes were:

§ Absence of a time-limit for disposal of complaints and appeals by the Information Commission

§ Reference to the existing service rules as under Section 20 of the Act, on the basis of which the Information Commission is supposed to recommend disciplinary action against the defaulter PIOs

§ Lack of provision for an acknowledgement receipt to be issued to the applicant following submission of his/her request for information, complaint or appeal before the concerned authority

§ The provision made as under Section 27 that the appropriate Government (a potential defaulter party to the would-be litigation under the Act) would make rules for procedures to be adopted in adjudicating the appeals by the Information Commission (the highest appellate authority under the Act)- a peculiar provision that negates the very basic principles of jurisprudence

Sri Behera deeply deplored a highly skewed definition of “information” given by the Ministry of Personnel, GOI under their web page on FAQ, where they have said that the information does not include “notings on files”.

Sri Digambar Mahanty described the position of the State Government on the progress already made in implementing RTI Act in Orissa. He informed the house about the formation of the 3 member Committee for nomination of the Information Commissioners under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, setting up an 11 member core committee consisting of senior departmental heads, appointment of PIOs and first appellate authority down to GP level, training of the officers and staff, and opening of a web site on RTI etc. He further informed that the Oirssa rules under the Act shall be soon made out. Sri Mohanty hoped that international agencies like Actionaid should come forward to take the message of RTI down to GP and village level, since the Government has not adequate provision for the said purpose.

Sri Manmohan Praharaj gave a brief but thought-provoking talk on the larger issues involved in implementation of RTI in the country. He said, we have so many colonial laws made by the British which are still in force and the mindset of our officials and the people at large has been so much patterned after them that a progressive and citizen-oriented law like RTI would pose really a big challenge for everybody. However he hoped that people should not make abuse of this new law for their petty partisan ends and this law requires the sincere involvement of the civil society groups at different stages for its effective operationalisation.

Some members of the house raised their doubts and questions before the resource persons who responded by way of clarification on the same.

The Chairperson Ms. Supriya Akerkar in her concluding observations offered to extend all sorts of cooperation to the Government and civil society groups in the matter of awareness, sensitization and training necessary for an effective operationalisation of the RTI in Orissa. Then the session broke for lunch.

Post-lunch session:

The post lunch session started at 3 pm and continued up to 5.30 pm, its panelists being Mr.Dharani Dhar Nayak, President Bar Council of Orissa, Mr. Kedar Nath Jena, senior advocate and President Orissa Consumers Association, Mr. Bimsaya Mohanty, President Small and Medium Newspapers Association, Orissa, Mr. Nageswar Patnaik, Economic Times Orissa edition and Mr.Achyut Das, Director Agragamee. Mr. Jena felt that the RTI Act can serve its purposes only if and when the civil society groups are determinedly and comittedly prepared to puruse it through and through. Mr. Nageswar Patnaik opined that the big deals and scams around contracts and leases to multinational or domestic companies, for instance POSCO, about which the people have no definite information, be made transparent through RTI. Mr. Nayak observed that the RTI if not pursued by the civil society would fall into disuse like so many progressive laws made in the past. Mr. Mohanty said, the RTI can work as a great tool for serving the people with much more information concerning their development if the small and medium news-papers can make use of it. Mr. Achyut Das while warning the house about a few lacunas in the RTI Act called upon the civil society groups to make use of this essentially progressive legislation for advancing the cause of empowerment and entitlement of the marginalized sections of people in the backward regions of Orissa. Specifically Mr. Das suggested an organized campaign to be made by the civil society groups to ensure as many applications for information as possible to be submitted to the concerned PIOs in these regions with effect from 12^th Oct.2005, the date when the Act comes into full force and to organize as many public hearings as possible thereafter on the basis of the information collected through the above application.

Mr. Biren Nayak from Actionaid suggested that the RTI can serve as a great tool for holding public hearings on various developmental schemes and this workshop itself should draft an action plan for the said purpose at the end of the day.

Mr. Nirakar Beura a social activist, intervened to observe that the civil society groups should not harbour any illusion about the present RTI Act described often as a historic, landmark legislation, just like they did about the 73^rd amendment for empowering to Panchayats.

Intervening in the discussion Mr.Chitta Behera had clarified that despite certain lacuna and incongruities, the present RTI Act is more internally consistent and a workable tool than the earlier FOI Act 2002 or its other avtars.

The post-lunch Session was Chaired by Mr. Pradip Pradhan, Convener of the Workshop.