NetIndian: New Delhi: Friday,
January 24, 2014.
The Government has formulated guidelines to
provide for a third party audit by public authorities of their proactive
disclosures under the Right to Information (RTI) Act to assess their level of
compliance with these guidelines.
The Government had earlier issued detailed
guidelines to Central Ministries and Departments for proactive disclosure under
section 4 of the RTI Act on April 15, 2013.
State Governments have also been requested to
consider issuing similar guidelines, along with templates for disclosure at
various levels, for better implementation of suo motu disclosure at State
level. Four areas have been identified for development of templates: Public
distribution system, Panchayats, MGNREGA and Primary and Secondary Schools.
An official press release said the Act casts an
obligation on public authorities for suo motu disclosure/publication of large
amount of information. It shall be a constant endeavour of every public
authority to take steps for providing as much information suo motu to the
public at regular intervals through various means of communications, including
internet, so that the public have to minimally resort to the use of this Act to
obtain information.
It also requires the public authorities to supply
information called for by any citizen and to permit him to inspect the
documents and collect samples of various works.
The release said that, during 2011-12, the Central Information Commission received 33,922 appeals/complaints and
disposed 23,112.
The figures for appeals/complaints received and
disposed of for 2010-11
are 28875
and 24071
and for 2009-10
are 22800
and 19482, respectively, the release added.
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