Chhattisgarh: RTI to track officials146; work

In Chhattisgarh, the Right to Information Act would now help the government officials improve their career graph.

In Chhattisgarh, the Right to Information RTI Act would now help the government officials improve their career graph. Chhattisgarh Secretary general administration department Nand Kumar, responsible for the implementation of the Act in the state, has decided to tender information from the confidential report on a government official by the departmental promotion committee to his department employees under the RTI Act.

The Central and State Information Commissions, however, have deemed that the information in the confidential report of a government official need not be supplied under the RTI Act and that the deliberations of departmental promotion committees need not be made public.

In a move that spells out the vision of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who has called for changing the confidential report system to performance appraisal report, all decisions taken by the departmental promotions committees, of departments under Kumar8217;s command, are now accessible.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Nand Kumar stated that there was an urgent need to bring in transparency when it comes to promotion of government officials. 8220;Where is the need to hide information. If we provide the reasons on why a candidate was promoted, while others were overlooked, we would provide an opportunity to these people to help themselves by improving their performance in forthcoming years,8221; Kumar stated.

8220;Though we faced opposition while putting up the recommendations of departmental promotions committee, now most people in the department understand our point,8221; Kumar added.

The step was initiated after studying a pattern followed in the corporate sector, where each official is made aware of his positive qualities and advised to improve on certain other aspects, he added.

Meanwhile, another major RTI reform has also been initiated in the state. Despite the Chhattisgarh Law Department8217;s adverse comments, the department

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has also allowed access of confidential report under the RTI.

8220;This is probably the first time that such an information is being tendered under the RTI Act. However, the department has only allowed the availability of such information to the individual official. This step has also been initiated as these officials should know where they lack and by reading the report they would be able to read the suggestions which can help them in their career growth,8221; Kumar added.

The Secretary GAD pointed out that everything has been done under the provisions of the RTI Act which has permitted the tendering of such information under Section 22 of the Act. About 1,000 employees in various departments are likely to benefit from the move.