Govt to advertise best practices on RTI

Zee News: New Delhi: Wednesday, May 15, 2013.

The Centre on Tuesday decided to publicise best practices on implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act by public authorities across the country.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which acts as a nodal body for the implementation of RTI Act, has invited "write ups" from citizens about the best practices on RTI being adopted by public authorities all over the country.

The DoPT plans to publish a compendium of best practices on the RTI being adopted by a government department or public authority.

"The best 20 write-ups would be selected for inclusion in the compendium. The individuals whose write ups are selected for inclusion in the compendium would be rewarded with a lumpsum amount of Rs 25,000 each," the DoPT said.

The write up should carry need felt or problem faced by the public authority leading to adoption of such practice, details of the said practice including its scope, financial implications, and deployment of resources such as manpower, infrastructure, etc and lessons learnt by the concerned department during its implementation, it said.

Besides, positive positive outcome of such practice in the implementation of the RTI Act and scope of its replication in other public authorities may be included in the write ups by an interested citizen.

The neatly typed write-ups should be of about 5,000 words and must reach the department before June 28, it said.

"There are many good practices being followed by various public authorities. We want it to reach all people and other public authorities so that they also start following them. That is why we decided to publish the compendium with the people's help. It (people's support) will help us in saving time too," a DoPT official said.

The Centre's flagship Right to Information Act, which was enacted in 2005, mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information. One has to pay a fee of Rs 10 for seeking information.

The DoPT had last month also started a unique facility of submitting RTI applications and fees online.

It has created a portal--www.Rtionline.Gov.In--with an aim to help people exercise their right to know through online medium.