B'lore gets India's 1st 'RTI bank'

[karira]

Bangalore: H D Ramakrishna Gowda wants to know when the flyover being constructed in the vicinity of his house will get ready.

Powered by the Right to Information, Gowda, however, does not go to the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike for the information.
”The problem if you go to the BMP is that you can't even enter the campus. There’s a lot of security. People we need will not be there and officials make us run from pillar to post,” says Gowda.

Instead, Gowda approaches Veeresh Belur. Belur is putting together a library of documents collected by various NGOs under RTI to make life easier for the Bangaloreans. He calls it the RTI Bank.

“When information is collected and shared, it's optimally used. People need not approach the public authorities for the same information again. It amounts to duplication,” says Belur.

While documents from the BMP are the first to be put together in this RTI bank, Belur has also started web-based discussion groups to network NGOs for this initiative.

In case of irregularities, a complaint is filed with the Lokayukta.

B'lore gets India's 1st 'RTI bank' : rti, right to information, bangalore, rti bank : IBNLive.com : CNN-IBN

[ssn]

thats one step further in the success of RTI. people are amazing!

[agarwalas]

Has Mr. Veeresh Belur created a website on RTIBank? If yes it URL will of interest to all of us.

[karira]

Maharashtra may soon have an RTI bank

Bank will be initially opened in south Mumbai by NGO and Nani A Palkhivala Memorial Trust; latter is already sponsoring former’s RTI clinics in local railway stations

PTI
Mumbai: For those who want to use the Right to Information (RTI) Act but are unaware about procedures, a city-based NGO plans to set up an RTI bank in the state for providing all relevant information under one roof.

“Due to increasing awareness on RTI, there is a growing urge in people to use it. But many are unaware of the process. We are opening a RTI bank which would be a ready reckoner for such prospective applicants,” convenor of Mahiti Adhikar Manch (MAM) Bhaskar Prabhu told PTI.

MAM would seek all applications filed under RTI in Maharashtra from the concerned applicants and keep them informed about the progress in their respective cases.

“We will file all the documents and save the copies under one roof like a bank. The citizens can have access to these documents to know the process of filing applications. This will also help in reducing duplicity of queries,” Prabhu said.

This will save people and administration’s time and energy as applications of similar nature would reduce. This could result in faster disposal of applications, he added.

“Most of the queries pertain to the use of funds by corporators, MLAs and MPs. People can improvise their questions by referring to the available documents and seek more information under the same category for the betterment of their ward,” he said.

The inspiration to start a RTI bank was derived from one of the networking groups of MAM called ‘hum jaanenge yahoo group’ operating on similar lines in Bangalore.

“We will be implementing its programme at state level,” Prabhu said.
The bank will be initially opened in south Mumbai in association with Nani A Palkhivala Memorial Trust. The Trust is already sponsoring MAM’s RTI clinics in suburban railway stations. It has already spent Rs25,000 on this campaign.

“We are talking to the Trust. If they agree, then it could be opened in their own building,” Prabhu said.

“It is a good idea. In fact, having catalogues like a library would help people in locating the required records faster. Once we get a formal request from MAM, we will put the idea before our board,” Trustee and Member Secretary Shirin Bharucha said.

“Providing infrastructure won’t be possible. But we can certainly finance them to start the bank,” she said.

According to State Chief Information Commissioner S V Joshi, with 12,000 RTI applications filed per month, such a concept could help bringing down the numbers.

“But the wide scope of the Act allows to seek information on any subject. Queries on public issues can reduce as they are common. However many queries are personal and different. So, the numbers may not reduce to a large extent,” Joshi said.


Maharashtra may soon have an RTI bank - livemint

[sidmis]

How to Access this RTI Bank?
Is it Publicly accessible?
And what's the URL?

Sid

[karira]

Got the following information:

(from: [Reader-list] RTI Bank in Bangalore)

RTI Bank in Bangalore

For the time being print outs collected from Bangalore Mahanagara
palike have been kept for the use by genral public. Any body can walk
in to our Mahithi Hakku Adhyayana Kendra, located at No.54, 17th Cross,
M C Layout, Vijayanagar, Bangalore and inspect the records. They may
even take out xerox copy of the documnts at their own cost. About 200
documents of public importance are on display. Each document contains
the following parts:

A) Application filed under RTI Act
B) Reply received from the PIO
C) Complaint filed before the Commission/First Appeal u/s 19(1) of the Act
D) Information received from the PIOs
E) Orders of the Karnataka Information commission.

The documents are paticularly being used by Law Students, Management
Students and other post graduate students for their reference and study
of implementation of RTI Act. A few Advocates are using the documents
for their reference. Public Information Officers are also visiting the
data bank for reference. We even assisted some Public Authorities in
drafting their suo-moto declaration as laid down u/s 4 1)(b) of the Act.

A few first appellate authorities are using the documents for their
reference while disposing off their first appeals. Some of the
journalists are frequently visiting and making use of the data bank for
publishing reports. Documents are being used for Educating citizens,
whoever visits our data bank. Total number of documents held by us is
approximately 400.

About 40 complaints have already been filed before the Karnataka
Lokayukta based on the information secured from the Public Authorities.
The information available with us is not digitised as we are shortage
of space and manpower. We are planning to host a web site in the near
future.

Apart from the above Mahithi Hakku Adhyayana Kendra is assisting
citizens in filing applictions, Complaints before KIC and first appeals
before the Appellate Authorities. Mr. Vikram Simha and myself are
representing complainants/Appellants before the Karnataka Information
Commission during hearing of cases. So far we have presented more than
400 cases before the Karnataka Information Commission since December
2005.

Apart from the above we will be filing atleast Five applications per
day with various public authorities in Bangalore. Our activities are
now confined to a few selected public authorities located in Bangalore
City. The following RTI Activists are at present associated with us on
a full time basis:

Mr. Amaresh, Trustee, Mahithi Hakku Adhyayana Kendra
Mr. Vikram Simha, Trustee, MHA Kendra
Mr. Gopal, President, Bangalore Nagarikara Vedike
Mr. K Shivaramanna, Editor, Nudigannada.
Mr. G Vincent, President, Kengeri REsidents Welfare Assocation
Mr. Venkatesh Bhovi, Vice President All India Small & Medium News papers Federation
Mr. Mr. Ravi Reddy, President, Nagara Nagarikara Kriya Vedike, Bangalore.
Mr. T Ramu, Secretary, Vijayanagar REsidents Welfare Association
Mr. Lakshmi Narasimhaiah, Deputy Secretary (Rtd.),Govt. of Karnataka.

Apart from the above all KRIA KATTE members are sharing the
information/documents collected by them from various public
authorities.