Workshop on Right to Information
At Anwesha, Kashipur, Keonjhar
By Banspal NGOs Forum, Keonjhar on 30/31 January 2006
Banspal NGOs Forum organised a 2-day Workshop on Right to Information at Anwesha, Kashipur, Keonjhar on 30-31st January 2006. The objective of the Workshop was to discuss in detail the provisions under the Cenral Act and and the State Govt. Rules and also the gaps between them with an aim to sensitise thereby different civil society groups of the district on how to ensure proper operationalisation of the Act in the State of Orissa. The participants who hailed from various civil society groups working among the marginalized sections in the district and around had been given the reading materials on the Central Act and Orissa Rules both in English and Oriya in advance.
DAY-1 (30th January 2006)
On 30th of January at 11 AM, Sri Biplab Mishra of Prakalpa welcomed the participants to the Workshop and expressed the hope that all the participants should make best use their time during the Workshop to get conversant with the nitty-gritty of both Act and rules, so that they can subsequently help out the members of public at large to avail their right to access official information under the Act without much hassles.
Following the self-introduction by the participants, the thematic introduction to the goals of the Workshop was given by Sri Ashok Nath of Banspal NGOs Forum. Describing the RTI Act as the greatest legislative event in the post-independence period, Sri Nath observed that its implementation however depended upon the Central and State Governments. While the Centre and other States have framed more or less appropriate Rules under the Act, the Government of Orissa announced a set of Rules on 7th of October last, which militated against the letter and spirit of the mother Act. The prohibitively exorbitant fee regime suggested under the Orissa Rules is only a typical example of the utterly anti-people and pro-secrecy mindset of Orissa’s coterie of bureaucrats who had framed the said Rules. Sri Nath cited various other dubious provisions made under Orissa Rules to prove his point. He further observed that though the State Information Commission has already functioned more than a couple of months, it has not done anything tangible to amend the defect-ridden Orissa RTI Rules. It was therefore imperative that the common people themselves need be made thoroughly aware of the untenable provisions of the Orissa Rules and mount pressure through a sustained campaign on the Govt. to replace the same with an appropriate set of Rules in correspondence with the principal Act.
Sri Nath was followed by other participants who one after another narrated their experience of RTI law at work in their respective areas during the last couple of months following the full enforcement of the Act on 12th of October. In this context, Sri Biswa Ranjan Kar of CYSD said that he had applied for information in the Form –A paying a fee of Rs. 20/- but has not received any reply so far.
Then Sri Chitta Behera, a social scientist who was the Resource Person on the occasion said that however adverse the Orissa RTI Rules might have been, the right of ordinary citizens to inspection of public offices and 17 categories of suo moto disclosures by them under Section 4 of the Act has not been affected by the Orissa Rules. To access such information one needn’t have to fill up an application Form, nor to pay an application fee nor to wait for 30days as required under Section 6 of the Act. And it is therefore desirable that the people should be enabled to access official information under Section 4 rather than Section 6 of the Act. Thus the chief goal of the ongoing training programme should be to learn both theoretically and practically how to instantly access official information under Section 4 without any hassles, and if denied information, how to lodge a Complaint directly before the Information Commission under Section 18 of the Act.
In the post-lunch session, the participants raised various questions and doubts for clarification and the resource person addressed to each of them. Then the participants felt confident of approaching the various public authorities located at Keonjhar the next day to access information under Section 4 and were therefore divided into 4 Groups, each group assigned with some offices under both Central and State Governments.
DAY-2 ( 31st January 2006)
At around 11 AM the participants divided into 4 Groups went out to visit various offices to collect information under Section 4 of the Act. The Groups visited the offices as follows:
- Group 1 ( led by Ashok Nath) : District Office, Keonjhar
- Group 2 ( led by Kedar Nath Arukh): Offices of ITDA and Tahsildar
- Group 3 ( led by Birabar Nayak) : Office of DSWO, Post Office
- Group 4 ( led by Biswa Ranjan Kar): Office of DRDA, Keonjhar
In each office they sought information which fall under some categories or the other under Section 4(1b) of the Act. But the response was varied from office to office.
The Group 1 described their experience of prolonged arguments and counter-arguments with ADM, Keonjhar who has been declared as the first appellate authority under the Orissa RTI Rules. Despite the documentary evidence about the citizen’s right to instant inspection under Section 4 of the Act, the ADM insisted on the Group members to apply in Form A along with deposit of the Application Fee. He also insisted on proof of the identity of the applicants like Voter’s card to be shown by the seekers of the information before his office could take up their application for furnishing of the requested information. The group not agreeing to the undue insistence by the ADM, decided to lodge a Complaint under Section 18 of the RTI Act before the State Information Commission.
The Group 2 visited the offices of ITDA and Tahsildar and got a more or less cooperative attitude from the officials present there in the matter of getting information.
The Group 3 visited the offices of DSWO and Superintendent of Post Offices, Keonjhar and got an overall favourable response from them.
The Group 4 visited the office of PD, DRDA and found no officer to be present there to give information, and therefore decided to lodge a Complaint before the State Information Commission in the matter.
In the post-lunch session, the Groups presented their respective feedback to the plenary house, and the Resource Person made some general observations on how to improve the mode of approach to the public offices for seeking information under Section 4 of the Act.
Then an Action Plan was agreed upon by the participants for carrying forward the information seeking drive under Section 4 down to the village level across the district of Keonjhar. Sri Biren Nayak, Programme Officer of Action Aid Orissa who was the other Resource Person on the occasion facilitated the discussions on Action Plan. In the end an Action Plan was adopted, that contained the following components:
- Further experimental visits to public offices for seeking information under Section 4, and if denied information, for submitting complaints before the Information Commission under Section 18 of the Act.
- Upto GP level, the campaign for RTI Act and against Orissa RTI Rules is to be carried forward,
- Integrating the RTI angle into the other projects such as NREGA-2005, in the interest of these projects and as well for advancing the cause of RTI itself.
After the Action Plan was agreed upon by the groups, the Workshop came to a close.