Just ₹33 lakh spent to advertise RTI Act

The Hindu: Mumbai: Friday, December 01, 2017.

Successive State governments have failed to prioritise publicising the Right to Information (RTI) Act, spending only ₹33.75 lakh on advertising it from 2011 till date.

Information provided by the Directorate General of Information and Public Relations (DGIPR) to activist Anil Galgali under the RTI Act reveals that the government had allocated and utilised ₹9 lakh in 2011-12 to print 90,000 booklets about the RTI Act that year. No other advertising costs were incurred in this regard in that fiscal.

The expenditure in subsequent years was much lower, according to the data provided. The allocated budget for advertising the Act was ₹2 lakh in 2012-13, ₹5 lakh in 2013-14, ₹4 lakh in 2014-15, ₹3.5 lakh in 2015-16, and ₹five lakh each in 2016-17 and 2017-18. “The Union government does not provide any funds for advertising and publicising the RTI Act to the State government,” the DGIPR reply said.

Mr. Galgali said the Act is the only means to bring about transparency and accountability within public administration. “This is why the Centre and most State governments do not provide adequate funding to advertise and publicise the Act widely. The Act has become popular, notwithstanding this reluctance of the State to create awareness on the subject, only due to the initiative taken by activists,” he said.