Economic
Times: New Delhi: Wednesday, October 31, 2012.
Delayed
response from several ministries on a study on RTI applications received by
them has prompted the Department of Personnel and Training to send a reminder
to all departments concerned to send details of their nodal officers for the
purpose.
The analysis
is aimed at documenting the success and constraints in implementation of RTI
Act, identifying the areas which need more attention, addressing the gap areas
and suggesting what more needs to be done to help achieve the objectives of the
transparency law.
DoPT, which
acts as a nodal department for the implementation of the RTI Act, had on
September 4 requested the government departments to indicate their willingness
to get an analysis of RTI applications received by them through an internship
programme.
"Response
in this regard is awaited from most of the ministries or departments," it
said in its official memorandum.
DOPT has
asked the ministries or departments desirous of getting the analysis done to
allow interns sponsored by it to analyse a sample of RTI applications received
in the last one year.
The
expenditure of the internship programme by way of conveyance allowance of the
interns would be borne by DoPT. The response in this regard alongwith the
details of nodal officers to coordinate with DoPT for this programme should be
intimated by November 5, it said.
It has also
written to national law universities seeking volunteers to undertake the
short-term internships.
The RTI Act,
which was enacted in 2005, covers disclosure of information on nearly all
matters of governance. The government had recently dropped its proposal to
review fight against corruption through a self-evaluation study by independent
experts in view of cold response from agencies concerned.
DoPT had in
May this year invited expression of interest to undertake a self-evaluation
study to assess anti-corruption measures as part of a mandatory obligation
after ratification of the UN Convention Against Corruption - an international
legal instrument to deal with corruption.
The proposal
was later dropped due to slack response.