COUNTERVIEW:
Ahmedabad: Thursday, 15 October 2015.
Manojbhai
Patel filed a right to information (RTI) plea with the district collector's
office, Ahmedabad, by pasting a revenue stamp worth Rs 20 on July 7, 2015.He
was surprise to receive a letter from the Public Information Officer (PIO)
saying that his application could not be considered, as he had not paid the fee
of Rs 20 by non-judicial stamp.
The letter
reached Manojbhai on August 4, 2015. The PIO is also the secretary to the
collector.
The Gujarat
state assembly passed new rules for RTI on March 22, 2010, which included
various modes for payment for RTI application, including cash, judicial stamp
paper, non-judicial stamp, non-judicial stamp paper, franking, electronic
stamping, demand draft, pay order, postal order, court fee stamp, revenue
stamp, challan, revenue stamp, and judicial stamp paper.
Gujarat has
the highest 12 choices for citizens for paying for RTI pleas, which makes
procedure of filing application easy and hassle free.
These rules
have been published in the form of a booklet by the state-controlled Sardar
Patel Institute of Public Administration (SPIPA), Ahmedabad, and an annual
report of the institute claims that training of the officials handling RTI has
been carried out, and all of them have got one booklet each.
Manojbhai, after
receiving the reply, filed a complaint with the information commissioner,
Gujarat. The commissioner passed an order, without conducting hearing, on
September 9, 2015. The order quotes the Gujarat RTI rules, saying revenue stamp
is allowed as a mode of payment, hence the PIO order of rejecting RTI
application of Manojbhai is invalid. The PIO was directed to proceed as per the
law.
The
commissioner's order, interestingly, does not take serious note of the fact
that the PIO, who is also senior official in the district collectorate of
Ahmedabad, is ignorant of the Gujarat RTI rules of 2010, which are five years
old.
Manojbhai is
still to get information from the PIO. He doubts the intention of the PIO to
furnish information, and thinks that the PIO would apply all available tactics
to delay information.
Under the RTI
Act, any citizen is eligible to access to information held by any public
authority within 30 days. While the “demand side” of the law (citizens, public)
is aware of the Act, and people file requests with proper fees following
necessary procedures, the “supply side” still does not seem to have been
trained personnel for implementing the Act. This is a major lacuna in access to
information in Gujarat.
In Gujarat
the responsibility for training government officials rests with SPIPA, which is
supposed to train bureaucrats, system officials and employees on various
governance issues. A plan is in existence, which envisages creation of a cadre
of RTI master trainers, who would train other officials into implementing the
Act at the local level. Several master trainers have been trained.
For reasons
not known, however, the RTI master trainers have not conducted any training at
district and block level. Hence, all RTI training is restricted to SPIPA and
its regional training centres. As SPIPA gives all types of training, RTI is not
its priority.
As there is
staff deficit, officials are not nominated for training into RTI. Hence, even
10 years later, we are still left with huge number of employees and officials
who are ignorant of the provisions of the law, and citizens have to break their
heads and suffer.
Often
official approach the RTI helpline run by NGO Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel
(MAGP) for guidance, as there is no official mechanism a helpline or a help
desk which the PIOs and appellate authorities could approach to solve RTI
issues.
The
Government of India has been urging states to send proposals to run helplines,
and also innovative projects for improving the implementation of the RTI Act. However,
Gujarat has kept itself away from showing up its good practices in RTI.
At a recent
RTI meet at the Kochrab Ashram, founded by Mahatma Gandhi in Ahmedabad before
he shifted to the present Sabarmati Ashram location, activists and citizens
demanded that government should improve implementation of the RTI Act.
There was a
strong voice: If this did not happen, citizens would start a state-wide
movement exposing the government’s hidden motive of “hiding facts from
citizens” while talking loud about governance model, e-governance and
transparent government.
(Mahiti
Adhikar Gujarat Pahel, Ahmedabad)
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