Greater
Kashmir: Srinagar: Friday, 03 July 2015.
States can
get financial aid from the Centre to set up facilities for online filing of
applications under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and other initiatives
aimed at simplification and promotion of the transparency law.
Various
Administrative Training Institutes (ATIs) working under the states can also get
grant of a maximum of Rs 4 lakh for setting up a helpline in regional languages
for answering queries of general public under the RTI Act, the Department of
Personnel and Training (DoPT) announced today.
"The
facility of filing RTI applications and appeals online through RTI online web
portal has been launched and is being implemented in all the ministries or
departments of Government of India situated in New Delhi.
"The
same facility can be extended to state government offices by sharing with them
the software developed by NIC (Headquarters)...
The ATIs may
play the role of catalyst in the implementation of the facility in the public
authorities located in the state. Proposals in this regard are invited from
ATIs and funds would be granted on the basis of such proposal," it said in
a detailed guidelines for the grant.
A fund of up
to Rs 3 lakh for celebration of RTI Week (October 5-12) and Rs 4 lakh for
innovative awareness generation programme on the transparency law through
street plays, folk groups, etc. Has been earmarked by DoPT.
"Funds
would be granted to Administrative Training Institutes based on their
respective proposal subject to a maximum ceiling of Rs 4 lakh per annum in the
first year which would include rental charges for a telephone line, computer
system for data storage, salary for the person manning the helpline and
stationery, etc.
"The
grants for the subsequent years would be restricted to Rs 2 lakh per annum.
Such helplines could be set up in collaboration with NGOs working in the field
of RTI," it said.
The state
governments are also being encouraged to improve record management and suomotu
disclosure of information related to their working through financial grants
proposed by it.
Besides, Rs 5
lakh (per case basis) will be given to states for carrying out field-based
research on RTI and Rs 1 lakh for organising workshops and seminars on
promotion of the transparency law.
The RTI Act,
2005, empowers the citizen to seek time bound response from a government
department on governance matters.
.JPG)
.JPG)
