3-DAY TRAINING TO THE STAFF OF DEOGARH PRESSURE GROUP,
ON RTI ACT AND ORISSA RTI RULES 2005,
HELD AT SEDP TRAINING CENTRE, PALLAHARA, ANUGUL
DATES : 6th to 8th Feb. 2006
VENUE: SEDP TRAINING CENTRE , KANTALA, PALLAHDA, ANUGUL
ORGANIZED BY: WORD , KHAJURIA
HOSTED BY: DPG , DEOGARH
SUPPORTED BY: HIVOS, BANGALORE
RESOURCE PERSON: Mr.CHITTA RANJAN BEHERA
Social Scientist and Advisor to Orissa RTI Campaign
METHODOLOGY: PARTICIPATORY and Interactive Discussions along with
PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION
PARTICIPANTS: MALE – 09
FEMALE – 07
TOTAL – 16
DAY FIRST: 06.02.06
On behalf of the DPG Deogarh, a three-day training to staff on RTI Act and Orissa RTI Rules 2005 was organized at SEDP Training Centre, Kantala from 6th Feb. to 8th Feb. 2006. A total of 16 nos. of staffs attended the programme, out of whom seven were women. The training programme started at 11 a.m on 6th instant. At the outset, Mr.Ajaya Ku.Biswal from WORD welcomed the participants and the resource person. Then self-introduction was given by each participant and the resource person.
Then Mr.Ajay Kumar Biswal proposed that the focus of the training sessions should be as follows :
· To know critically the Orissa RTI Rules 2005 and identify objectionable sections therein vis-a-vis the Right to Information Act, 2005 and Central RTI Rules-2005;
· To find out the required changes in the Orissa RTI Rules, 2005 in correspondence with the letter and spirit of the Right to Information Act, 2005
· How to avail the provisions under Section 4 of the Act to obtain information through instant inspection on proactive disclosure of 17 categories of information, without having to make any application or pay any application fee
Then the resource person briefly discussed about the reading materials on Right to Information Act 2005 and Orissa RTI Rules 2005 already provided to the participants some days before the training.
The following were the reading materials, provided to the trainees:
- A bilingual booklet containing English and Oriya versions of the RTI Act and Central RTI Rules, 2005,
- A bilingual booklet containing English and Oriya versions of the ‘Template for Information Handbook under Section 4(1b) of the RTI Act’,
- Copy of the Orissa RTI Rules, 2005,
- Oriya Articles (5 nos.) containing critique of various aspects of Orissa RTI Rules.
Then the participants raised various questions and doubts about the RTI Act and Orissa Rules, which were taken up for discussion one by one, through a participatory and interactive method with the facilitation provided by the trainer.
Lunch Break-2 to 3 p.m.
The next session resumed the discussion from where it was left. In this session, the resource person asked the participants whether they have ever faced any problems about getting information from different offices under RTI Act 2005. The participants shared their experiences and the problems they had faced. From the feedback of the participants, the resource person felt that they were unable to get information because they lacked clarity about the provisions of the Act. Then he opined that despite the impossible hurdles created by the Orissa RTI Rules for a common citizen to obtain information through application under Section 6 of the Act, anybody can still access the essential information which he or she wanted by using the Section 4 of the Act. And if a person is denied information sought under the said Section, then he or she can lodge a Complaint under Section 18 of the Act directly before the Central or State Information Commission as the case may be. He further said that these two Sections have not been affected in any manner by the Orissa RTI Rules so far. Under the Section 4, one can get 17 categories of information without having to submit any application or application fee as required under Section 6 of the Act.
Then the resource person emphasized the need for clarity among the participants about the Section 4 and Section 18 of the Right to Information Act, 2005.
Tea Break: 6 to 6.30 p.m.
After the tea-break the resource person took up an in-depth discussion of the Section 4 of the Right to Information Act, 2005. Following a through-going discussion, the participants got clarity and became confident to approach different Central and State Government authorities for obtaining information by using Section 4 of the Right to Information Act, 2005. Then the participants listed out different Central and State public offices located at Pallahara under Angul district. The participants were divided into three groups as follows, each to visit a selected number of public offices, for their practical experience in using Sections 4 and 18 to obtain information under the RTI Act or otherwise to lodge Complaint before the Information Commission.
Group – 1: Jagannath Panda (Leader)
Ajaya Biswal
Sailabala Mahanta
Soudamini Patra
Offices to be covered: Police Station, Office of Sub-Collector and State Bank of India
Group- 2: Taranisen Padhan (Leader)
Ritarani Rout
Namita Mishra
Madanmohan Sahu
Offices to be covered – Tahasil,Telephone (BSNL), Forest Range Office(Kendu Leaf)
Group-3: Prasanna Kumar Dash (Leader)
Muna Pradhan
Sanjita Ratha
Jyotsna Ran
Offices to be covered – Block Office, Post Office and State Excise
It was decided that the next day each group shall start off their visit to the offices assigned to them at 10.30 AM and shall report back by 5 PM.
Then the first-day training programme came to an end.
DAY SECOND – 07.02.06
The second day training programme started with the presentation of last day’s report that contained inter alia a resume of the valuable suggestions by the participants and resource persons. At 10.30 a.m. the participants divided into their respective groups moved to the concerned public offices located at Pallahada to obtain information under Section 4 (1b) of the Right to Information Act, 2005. At 5 p.m. the participants came back to the SEDP Training Centre at Kantala after visiting the offices assigned to them.
After a short tea-break, the evening session started at 6 p.m. Then the resource person asked each group to present their respective experience. The Group leaders presented their experiences as follows.
VISIT BY GROUP-1
Firstly, Mr.Jagannath Panda, leader of the Group-1 shared his experiences of visiting the public offices such as Police Station, State Bank of India and Office of Sub-Collector, Pallahada.
Police Station: The first group visited the Police Station and met Officer-In-Charge (OIC) Mr.Debadutta Baral. The group leader asked him whether any body was appointed as PIO in the Police Station under the RTI Act. Then the OIC asked, “Who are you and where have you come from? Then the leader said, ‘We have come from Deogarh and want some information under the RTI Act, 2005”. Then the OIC asked, “What are the information you need from my office”. The information seekers said about their information requirements. Then the OIC said, “I cannot give such information. Because I don’t know about the RTI Act and its guideline.” The leader said, “Can you write a complaint for us to the State Information Commission?” But the OIC didn’t agree. Then the group members on return from there themselves wrote the complaint against the OIC.
State Bank of India: The first group also visited the State Bank of India, Pallahara and met its Manager Mr.H.K.Mishra. The group leader said, ‘We want some information under the RTI Act”. The Bank Manager said, “I have little knowledge of this Act. Can you share with me about this Act ?” After some discussion on the RTI Act, he became agreeable to give the information. He noted down the questions and said, “You may come at 3.30 p.m.” But due to lack of time, the group was unable to visit the Bank again and bring the information sought.
Sub-Collector: The Group-1 also visited the office of the Sub-Collector, Pallahara on the same day. They met the Head Clerk of the office and asked, “Who is appointed as PIO under the RTI Act in your office?” Then the Head Clerk said, “Why you are asking such question?” Then the leader of the group said, “Under the Section 4 of the RTI Act, we want some information.” Then the Head clerk informed, “Our Revenue Officer Mr.Batakrushna Behera is the PIO of our office”. Then the group approached the PIO and asked for the required information. The PIO noted down the questions and said, “You may come at 3p.m.” When the group again went at 3 p.m. to the same office, the PIO didn’t give the information.” Then the group asked him to write a Complaint under Section 18 of the Act for them to be submitted to the Information Commission. But the PIO refused to write the same. Then the group wrote down a complaint against the office of the Sub-collector, Pallahara, addressed to the Orissa State Information Commission.
VISIT BY GROUP-2
The second group with the leadership of Mr.Taranisen Padhan visited the offices of Tahasildar, Telecom(BSNL) and Forest Ranger (Kendu Leaf).
Office of Tahsildar: At first they visited the office of the Tahasildar, Pallahara and met the Tahasildar Mr.Brajabandhu Bhoi himself. The group leader said, “We have come to obtain some information under the RTI Act. Then the Tahasildar referred the group to the PIO of the office. The group met the PIO to get the information. But the PIO said, “Kindly apply in the concerned application form to get the information. And the said form is available in the Block office.” But the Group said, “We want information under Section 4 of the RTI Act, which does not require any application to be made.” But the PIO didn’t agree to this suggestion and said, “I will give such information only after getting the permission of the Tahasildar at 3 p.m.” When the Group reached back again to the office of the Tahasildar at 3.p.m, the Tahasildar was absent, and the PIO said, “I can not give you information without the permission of the Tahasildar”. Then the Group said, “Can we inspect the documents”. But the PIO refused to show the documents. Then the leader asked him to write a complaint under Section 18 of the Act on behalf of the group to the State Information Commission. The PIO said, “You may write the complaint yourself.” Then the Group wrote the complaint against the Tahasildar, Pallahara to be sent to the Suchana Commission.
Telecom(BSNL): The second group also met the JTO, BSNL, Pallahara for some information. The JTO said, “I donot have any irnformation about the RTI Act. However, I will give you the information at 3.30 p.m.” When we visited the office again at the appointed time, he refused to give the information with authentication. Then a complaint was written against him by the group.
Forest Ranger (Kendu Leaf): The Ranger was absent and no body was given charge to deal with the duty to supply information to the public under the RTI Act. So the group had to write a complaint against the Ranger’s office.
VISIT BY THE GROUP-3
The third group with the leadership of M r.Prasanna Dash visited the offices of the Block and Postal Department.
Block Office: At first the group visitsd the Block Office, Pallahara and met the Clerks of the office since the BDO and PIO were both absent. The leader of the group said, “We need some information under the RTI Act. But the Clerk said, “BDO and PIO are absent and so I cannot give you information. I do not know about the Act.” Then the group left the office. But after some time the Clerk having searched for the group met them at the Bus Stand and said, “Our PIO has come. Please come to the office and collect the required information.” The group again went to the Block office and met the PIO. The PIO said, “You may apply in proper Form to get the information.” But the leader of the group said, “We want some information which comes under Section 4(1b) of the RTI Act. And there is no need as such for making any application to get the said information.” Then the PIO said, “We will not give you information without any application and fees to be submitted by you.” Further he said, “We can give information only to the persons belonging to this Block.” Then they called the Police. The OIC arrived at the Block office and started grilling the group by asking questions in a rude manner. Then the resource person Mr.Chitta Behera along with Mr.Ajay Kumar Biswal of WORD reached the place and argued with the OIC. Then the OIC after knowing about the citizen’s right to get instant information under Section 4 of the Act, returned from the place without taking any action. So the group decided to write a general complaint against the office of the BDO, Pallahara for their negligence in making necessary arrangements for disseminating suo moto information under Section 4 of the Act to the visiting members of public.
Post Office: The third group also visited the Post Office and got photocopy of the information asked for.
Lessons of the day:
The resource person asked the participants to share their lessons of the day and how to use the same in future. The following lessons were noted down by the participants:
- Each citizen visiting a public office for information should first of all say that he has come to seek information under Right to Information Act.
- The name and post of the head of a public authority and that of PIO and Assistant PIO etc. should be noted down by the visiting citizen.
- A visitor may and should give his/her actual identity only verbally.
- An aggrieved citizen should lodge his/her complaint only against the Head of a Public Authority, PIO or Assistant PIO of an office, but not against any subordinate staff.
- A visiting citizen should ask and argue with only the Head of a Public Authority, its PIO or APIO, but not with any body else about the matters under RTI Act 2005.
The participants expressed their feeling that the practical experience acquired during the day in course of visiting the various public offices brought more clarity among them about the RTI Act and Orissa Rules and in future they can use the same with confidence and better results.
Then the Second day’s programme came to an end with vote of thanks to the participants and resource person.
DAY THIRD – 08.02.06
The third day training programme started at 10 a.m. with the presentation of last day’s report. At first the resource person asked the participants to present the complaints prepared following the visit to the public offices the previous day. Then the resource person made some suggestions on the text and style of the complaints so prepared. Accordingly, the participants rewrote all the complaints written by them. The complaints were made against the following authorities located at Pllahara:
1. The Police Station,Pallahara, Dist.Angul
2. The Sub-Collector,Pallahara, Dist.Angul
3. The Tahasildar, Pallahara, Dist.Angul
4. The JTO, BSNL, Pallahara, Dist.Angul
5. Forest Ranger (Kendu Leaf)West, Pallahara, Dist-Angul
6. The BDO, Pallahara Block, Dist-Angul
Then Sri Ajay Kumar Biswal and Sri Jagannath Panda conducted the last session, in which an Action Plan was adopted by the participants for the days ahead. The components of the said Action Plan were as follows:
1. Visit to different district level offices at Deogarh with an objective to activate the information access process under Section 4(1) of Right to Information Act, which requires no application to be made nor any application fee to be paid.
2. To facilitate the efforts of the displaced people to get information concerning their resettlement and rehabilitation by using the Section 4 of the RTI Act.
3. Those applicants who have been deprived of BPL cards, shall be identified and facilitated to ask the administration about their deprivation by way of using Section 4 of the RTI Act.
4. The RTI Act shall be used to bring transparency in the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act at Block and District level.
5. The DPG shall publish a poster in Oriya to appeal to the people to use Sections 4 and 18 of the RTI Act, 2005
Then the training programme came to an end with vote of thanks by Sri Ajay Kumar Biswal to the participants and the resource person.
Persons responsible for documentation of the proceedings of the Training Programme:
1. First day’s proceedings and Question-answer session: - Jyotsna Ran &
Sailabala Mahanta
2. Second Day’s proceedings – Soudamini Patra
3. Third Day’s proceedings – Jagannath Panda
4. English-rendering of the reports and their computerization – Taranisen Padhan
5. Compiling of the complaints – Ritarani Rout
6. Monitoring and main facilitator for the reporting- Jagannath Panda