Govt made no effort to promote RTI Act in TN

Jeeva, TNN; Apr 1, 2011,

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu was the first in the country to bring in a law on the right to information, in 1997, well before the RTI Act came into force in 2005. However, with regard to the efforts to promote RTI awareness, the state appears to be lagging.

In reply to an RTI application, the state information department said it didn't spend even a rupee in the last five years to promote the landmark enactment even as the UPA allies, including the DMK, were claiming the Act as one of their great achievements.

"We haven't given any advertisement either through newspapers or television channels in the last five years to propagate the RTI Act," the information department said in its reply to the application by V Santhanam of Chromepet.

The government seems more generous in its allocation for advertising for the Kalaignar housing scheme of the DMK government Rs 51 lakh in just two-and-a-half month since January this year.

According to its reply last week to an RTI application filed by V Gopalakrishnan of KK Nagar, the government spent Rs 1.60 crore in the last one year to advertise the scheme launched in March 2010. It includes Rs 38 lakh for newspaper advertisements, Rs 75 lakh for television ads, and Rs 47 lakh in radio advertisements.

The government's failure to propagate the RTI Act has irked activists.

"We only question why the government is not giving importance to propagating the RTI Act. People know about the existence of Act, but most don't know how to file an RTI application," Santhanam said.

Though RTI awareness in Tamil Nadu is good compared to many other states and the information commission here gets about 200 cases a day, most of them seek information about their personal grievances. With the country witnessing an unprecedented level of corruption, it is time governments promoted awareness on this law, activists say.

As per Section 26 of the RTI Act, the government should organise educational programmes to create awareness, particularly among disadvantaged communities, on how to exercise the rights contemplated under this Act.