Times of India: Kolhapur:
Tuesday, April 29, 2014.
The Union
government has issued a circular to state governments this month asking
department heads to make suo motu disclosure of information related to foreign
and domestic official tours of ministers and officials, a move which has been
welcomed by RTI activists in the state.
The circular
issued by the ministry of personal, public grievances and pensions, states
'some of the authorities are not disclosing such information' despite being
asked about it.
"It has
come to notice that some of the authorities are not disclosing such information
or providing only partial information and are also not updating it regularly.
It is advised that all the public authorities may strictly comply with the
advisory," the letter states.
The state
general administration department has circulated the instructions asking
department heads to make suo motu disclosure of such information. Shivaji Raut,
a RTI activist from Satara, said, "Section 4 of the RTI act talks about
the obligations of public authorities. It asks the authorities, including
ministers and officials, to disclose details proactively. This has been ignored
by the bureaucracy for long time. It's a good thing that the Centre is keen on
implementing this section. We welcome the move and demand faster
implementation."
Aseem Sarode,
activist and lawyer from Pune, said that various seminars and workshops
arranged at Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA),
Pune, where officials were informed about the Section 4 of the RTI Act
regarding public disclosure.
"I think
unwarranted confidentiality in many departments has created a bottleneck in
proper implementation of the RTI Act. The bureaucracy has developed a tendency
to react instead of playing a proactive role. We have conducted numerous
seminars and workshops for the officials at YASHADA, where we appealed them to
be proactive. There is no need to file applications to get some types of
information," Sarode said.
In 2012, the
union government had passed instructions to ministers and officials to declare
details of official tours, places visited, the period, number of people
included in the official delegation and total cost of such travel undertaken.
It had excluded security and intelligence organizations from disclosing details
of travel.
The central
government had received many applications under the RTI asking the details of
official tours undertaken by the ministers and officials. This had prompted the
ministry to instruct the states to suo motu disclose the details to avoid delay
in getting the information. The ministry had also advised the departments to
make this information available on internet. However, the recent circular
highlights that the ministers and officials had ignored the instructions.
Some
activists feel that along with travel details, ministers should also declare
their role in major decisions. Activist Narayan Powar, who is contesting Lok
Sabha election as the Aam Aadmi Party candidature from Kolhapur constituency,
there are instances when decisions were changed after a minister's unwarranted
intervention.
"I
welcome the Centre's push for proactive declaration of tours. But we should
have information about the minister's role in decision making. There were
instances in Maharashtra, where a minister intervened and stayed court orders.
Such information was never made available to public. I think such information
should also be available," said Powar.
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