Loosen up!

WHEN it comes to teaching government servants to part with information after decades of honouring the Official Secrets Act, 1923, the tutori...

WHEN it comes to teaching government servants to part with information after decades of honouring the Official Secrets Act, 1923, the tutorial needs to have some weightage. For about a year now, the Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration YASHADA8212;the apex training institute of the Government of Maharashtra8212;has been training Public Information Officers PIO and Appellate Authorities AA upto the divisional level in the ins and outs of the Maharashtra Right To Information Act, 2002 MRTI.

Till date, says Prof K S Nair, deputy director-general research, 1,200 officers from all over Maharashtra have been trained at YASHADA in two phases: 243 PIOs and AAs in March-June, 2004 through six divisional training programmes, and a further 696 in July-August, 2004.

8216;8216;We submitted a completion report to the state government in September 2004, and are now into the next stage of training,8217;8217; adds Nair.

This stage involves a focus on Section 4 of the MRTI, which deals with suo motu disclosure8212;either at the offices concerned or on websites8212;of information available with various government departments, without the public having to apply for access to it under the provisions of the Act.

To this end, three training programmes have already been conducted for 200 officers of the Directorates of Women 038; Child and Social Welfare, and the Mumbai Suburban Collectorate. Besides this, says Nair, training sessions on Right To Information have been included in Training of Trainers TOT programmes and Foundation Courses at YASHADA.

This year will see a cross-section of officers8212;from secretaries to field officers8212;being trained on Section 4, besides NGOs, sugar factories, cooperatives. The aim: Reorganisation of records management and documentation of information in offices.

According to YASHADA8217;s RTI cell, people are wrong in presuming that most information is readily available as booklets, published material or on websites. 8216;8216;Most offices have not even been able to compile or organise the information to be published under Section 4. It is to smoothen this crease that 24 workshops have been earmarked for 2005, focusing on Section 4 and it8217;s provisions,8217;8217; says an official.

YASHADA8217;s RTI mandate goes back to a meeting between Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and noted social activist Anna Hazare on February 27, 2004. At this meeting, YASHADA presented a time-bound plan for the implementation of the Act and the authorities took the decision to set up an RTI Cell in the Academy.

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TRICKY QUESTIONS

8226; If government officers are promoted on the basis of their confidential records, can they be disclosed?
8226; If a district government pleader advises keeping a certain document 8216;confidential8217;, can it be disclosed under RTI?
8226; Should notings instructions/ comments issued by elected representatives be disclosed?
8226; If a female officer complains against a male one, should a copy be made available under the RTI?

Beyond demystifying the Act, YASHADA also analyses feedback of training workshop participants. Capt A V Deshpande, deputy director general administration, says YASHADA is now trying to locate the problem areas in the implementation of the Act, and further strengthen the legislation.

Two problems need to be sorted out, says Deshpande, including the issue of a penalty for a PIO who has exceeded the time frame for replying under the MRTI.

Seen as the strongest Act of its kind in the country, the MRTI is on a path of registering in the mindsets of common people and government officers alike. In a few years, with proper implementation, at least one state in the country can claim to have transparency in functioning.