Train RTI officials: Activists' demand

[sidmis]

Train RTI officials: Activists' demand
as reported in Deccan Herald, DH News Service, Bangalore: 12 Oct,2008

Public grievances were heard and problems faced by people while filing RTI applications were discussed at the colloquium held to celebrate three years of the RTI Act in Karnataka on Saturday.

“Training the Right To Information (RTI) officers is a must as they do not know how to deal with people who file RTI. The officers should be cordial towards them instead of passing nasty comments to the applicants, which is a common situation faced by many of applicants,” said YG Muralidharan, Managing Trustee, Consumer Rights, Education and Awareness Trust (CREAT). He was speaking at a colloquium held to celebrate three years of the RTI Act in Karnataka on Saturday.

Public grievances were heard and problems faced by people while filing RTI applications were discussed in the presence of various experts in the filed.
The flaws of the Right To Information department were pointed out by various concerned agencies and the meeting aimed at ensuring the proper implementation of RTI Act to make the government and citizens responsible.

The committee emphasised on the training of Public Information Officers (PIO) and public awareness programmmes for RTI.

Viresh, Head, Mahitihakku Adhyayana Kendra said “In a majority of the cases examined, employees were not aware of name or designation of PIO in their offices. We should ensure that what we write is received by the authorities. Some of the receiving clerks refused to accept applications in revenue department, Bescom and police stations and hence applications were directly filed to department heads.”

The fee for RTI forms has always been paid through Indian Postal Order. However, BBMP and BDA have also made arrangements to receive cash at their offices.

“We have experienced great difficulties in payment of fees demanded by the PIOs. Money orders sent to PIOs were returned as refused. Alternatively, we had to remit the fee through Indian Postal Order via speed post and registered post,” said Virendra, one of the participants.

Other demands

The activists have demanded early disposal of pending cases before the Karnataka Information Commission; formation of rules to conduct first appeals under Section 19 (1) of the Act and establishment of RTI Cell at Vidhana Soudha, Vikasa Soudha and MS Building.

Deccan Herald - Train RTI officials: Activists' demand

[advocate rajesh]

Yes Sidharth ji Govt. officials or CPIO, SPIO needs a lot of training even officials appointed as FAA are have no basic knowledge of the act due to which people have to suffer. The Govt must insure RTI program for them and should issue them certificates to them so the if after attending they do mistakes there responsibility can be fixed and they be taken to task. because the officers do not attend the program seriously .

[colnrkurup]

No one to blame other than the respective State governments. What stops the government from involving the District Collectors in RTI Activities ? Has any District Collector in India has ever organised a conference or meeting of all the PIOs under him along with known RTI Activistsof his district ? What stop the District Collectors from organising such meeting/conference for inter-action between the known RTI Activists of the district with key SPIOs under him ? Unless the respetive state government take some initiative on this line involving the District Collectors,in RTI activities, key..zara..zara.

[sandeepbaheti]

When talking of training we should not forget the APIOs. These people hardly have any knowledge of RTI.
I went to the Sr. Postmaster of Indore GPO (who is one of the CAPIOs in designated post offices) to submit an RTI application for MCA. I was almost shocked when he asked me "What is RTI?". When I briefly explained him the whole thing and informed him that he was the APIO, his reply was "No, I am the Sr. Postmaster." Fortunately there was someone in the customer care centre who knew about this and accepted my application though I was charged Rs 15 instead of Rs 10.
In another incident I approached the branch manager cum CAPIO of a nationalised bank. He was ready to accept my RTI application but refused to accept the fees for it saying that he did not have any orders to collect fees for any application. Finally I had to send the application by post.
The whole purpose of appointing APIOs is to ensure better accessibility and convenience to citizens. Unless these people are trained, the purpose of appointing APIOs is not served.

[karira]

This was told to me personally by the APCIC, Mr C.D. Arha (IAS, Retd.):

APCIC: "Do you know that there are 1,76,000 SPIO's in Andhra Pradesh ? Even if it costs only Rs. 100 to train each SPIO, we require about 17 Crores."

Me: "No Sir, we require only Rs. 1.76 crore. When the AP State Government's published annual budget allocates Rs 135 Crores for "Publicity", why cannot the Government spend a measely Rs 1.76 Crore on training? In any case there is a DoPT circular that 1% of budgets of all schemes should be kept aside for improving computerisation and record keeping to facilitate RTI"

APCIC: No answer - just a smile.

It is all about Attitude and Will.