HELP us Organize RTI Awareness Drives and Clinics

[sweear]

Dear Members,

We are planning to organize RTI Awareness drives in various State Govt offices or pertaining to State Govt and its department.

The underneath link (A reply) has our general benevolence towards RTI India and a brief into our activites

Discussions: RTI India celebrates it's 1st Anniversary today

We are looking forward for suggestions in organizing the same from honorable members of RTI India

Regards

D R Yadav
Office Coord
SWEEAR HQ

[colnrkurup]

My personal opinion on the aspect of training government offices is generally not in confirmity with many NGOs I do not know about RTI India as to avoid a controvercy, I have not presented this issue in this forum so far. They are:

1. I do not find any reason for the NGOs diverting their energy in training government offices, as they do not need any training. If atall required, the job is that of government with all itsresources. All that the government offices have to do is to provide the information not falling under Section 8 sought by in formation seekers. Every government who has any interest in RTI has issued detailed circulars and instructions on the subject.
2. I had faced many officials as well as official crowds. The only thing they are interested is to get more and more information as to how the information can be denied. Most of the questions projectd by them are on Sectiion 8 with a persistant complaint that the RTI Act is being misused or used it as a blackmail . I did not agree with them. How can some one blackmail a bureaucrate unles he has done something unlawful or has something which he does not want the public to know ?
3. Putting in a rustic language, why should one teach a thief how to escape from getting cought in the theft or how to escape after getting caught ?
4. I have no objection to render advice to any official group who attend the meeting after fully reading the RTI Act. We should not waste our time in explaining the RTI Act to government servants as it is too self explanatory which any APIO or PIO or AA can easily understand. My regular retoric reply to them were that 'do they ask for training to understand/work out their entitlement when a new Pay commission revise their pay ?

To me. what the NGOs can do is to encourge cityzens to ask for information and use all their might to make the PIOs/AAs/SICs to perform. Such forums can also help public in filing first and second appeals as well as representing them during hearing.

[karira]

Sweear,

Section 26 of the RTI Act puts the onus of this on the Government itself.

1.	The appropriate Government may, to the extent of availability of financial and other resources,—

a.	develop and organise educational programmes to advance the understanding of the public, in particular of disadvantaged communities as to how to exercise the rights contemplated under this Act;

b.	encourage public authorities to participate in the development and organisation of programmes referred to in clause (a) and to undertake such programmes themselves;

c.	promote timely and effective dissemination of accurate information by public authorities about their activities; and

d.	train Central Public Information Officers or State Public Information Officers, as the case may be, of public authorities and produce relevant training materials for use by the public authorities themselves.

2.

The appropriate Government shall, within eighteen months from the commencement of this Act, compile in its official language a guide containing such information, in an easily comprehensible form and manner, as may reasonably be required by a person who wishes to exercise any right specified in this Act.

3.	The appropriate Government shall, if necessary, update and publish the guidelines referred to in sub-section (2) at regular intervals which shall, in particular and without prejudice to the generality of sub-section (2), include—

a.	the objects of this Act;

b.	the postal and street address, the phone and fax number and, if available, electronic mail address of the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, of every public authority appointed under sub-section (1) of section 5;

c.	the manner and the form in which request for access to an information shall be made to a Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be;

d.	the assistance available from and the duties of the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, of a public authority under this Act;

e.	the assistance available from the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as the case may be;

f.	all remedies in law available regarding an act or failure to act in respect of a right or duty conferred or imposed by this Act including the manner of filing an appeal to the Commission;

g.	the provisions providing for the voluntary disclosure of categories of records in accordance with section 4;

h.	the notices regarding fees to be paid in relation to requests for access to an information; and

i.	any additional regulations or circulars made or issued in relation to obtaining access to an information in accordance with this Act.

4.	The appropriate Government must, if necessary, update and publish the guidelines at regular intervals.

As colnrkurup mentioned , I also think that better to educate the public at large.
I find that even amongst the so called "educated" classes, the knowledge of one's rights and the RTI Act are very low.
Just one example:
I was invited to one Rotary club meeting for a talk on RTI. There were 34 people in the audience and when asked how many had heard about RTI, only 7 raised their hands.....just about 20%. And,none of those 20% had ever applied for any information.

Many NGO's are targeting rural areas to create awareness for RTI. But the urban areas are equally lacking in RTI awareness. Why not target Associations (like Residents associations), Rotary, Lions and Rotaract clubs, General Clubs, High Schools and Colleges, etc... This will be definitely better than just setting up booths to create awareness. Just my suggestion.

[sweear]

It Seems that honrable members have misunderstood or we have confused while asking for help.

We are merely asking to help us in organizing RTI Clinis , wherein we would automatically do Awarness for the public who visit Govt offices for their respective work.

We mentioned about organizing the same in State Govt offices in particular becasue in state of MP there is not enough awareness in Public pertaining to their Rights under RTI Act

Pl Dont misunderstand us and in case we are unable to explain , pl forgive.

Still we and other would gain extra knowledge from what ever has been mentioned above, though we are more keen on getting us ideas from all you honorable members so as to organize RTI Clinics.

Regrads

Sweear
"Ek Shapath Viksit Bharat Banane ki"

[ganpat1956]

For the purpose of organising RTI clinics, you need a set of volunteers who are themselves thorough with various facets of RTI and who are in a position to explain the various doubts of the info seekers who approach such clinics. Equip your dedicated volunteers with all the required knowledge and in due course of time your movement will gather the required momentum. Good luck to you in this effort.

[colnrkurup]

Wish you good luck "sweear"