RTI reply by Tribal Research & Training Institute raises doubts

Indian Express: Pune: Saturday, 17 October 2015.

Here is a clear violation of the Right to Information Act, 2005, that recommends imposition of a penalty as well as disciplinary action by the State Information Commission against the Public Information Officer if he/she knowingly shares incomplete, incorrect or misleading information in response to an RTI query.

Over a month ago, The Indian Express had filed two RTI queries with the Tribal Research and Training Institute (TRTI). While the first query sought to know the “number of youth leadership programmes conducted by TRTI between 1995 and 2000”, the second query sought figures related to the “number of participants who attended the youth leadership programmes conducted by TRTI between 1995 and 2000”.

While reply to the first query says that “between 1995 and 2000, altogether 125 youth leadership programmes were organised” reply to the second RTI query seeking to know the number of participants attending the programmes says – “no number” or “none”.

Similar information were sought for 2005-2014 through an RTI and the reply stated that altogether 170 such programmes were organised by TRTI, which were attended by 769 participants.

Youth leadership programmes are conducted by TRTI to provide information on the schemes being implemented by Tribal Development Department for economic uplift of tribal people and to discuss difficulties faced by tribals in implementation of various schemes. The institute conducts such programmes for tribal youths in tribal sub-plan areas across the state.

Established in the year 1962, TRTI works in various areas for tribals, which include preparation of books on tribals, tribal sports, establishment of tribal museum, evaluation of different welfare schemes, library and imparting trainings and holding workshops for tribal youths and employees of the Tribal Development Department.

City-based Ravindra Talpe, the president of Adivasi Bachao Abhiyaan who has been working for tribals since 1998 for their education, health, rights and employment, says, “Most of the schemes of the institutes like TRTI are only on paper. Even if they are implemented, it is not in an effective manner. For instance, in TRTI’s programme to train tribals for competitive exams, there are no productive results. Besides, they are conducted by incapable faculties.”

The overall functioning of TRTI has also been indicted by Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), which in 2014 pointed out various problem areas including allocation of funds and expenditure, its poor performance in conducting research studies, issuance of scheduled tribe validity certificates, impact assessment of schemes etc.