Bihar orders audit of RTI compliance by govt, public bodies, varsities
THE MOVE IS SIGNIFICANT AS BIHAR HAS ALSO WITNESSED A NUMBER OF KILLINGS OF RTI ACTIVISTS
PATNA: The Bihar government has embarked on an exercise for first ever third party audit of the various public institutions, including administration, departments and universities, to examine the ground realities of the implementation of Right to Information Act, especially with regard to suo motu disclosures by state institutions as mandated, in the light of the Supreme Court order earlier this year, officials familiar with the matter said.
Bihar Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development (BIPARD) has entrusted Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) with the responsibility of conducting the third party audit of departments and universities.
A high-powered four-member committee under former chief secretary AK Choudhary, who is also the former Chief Information Commissioner, Bihar, has been constituted for the purpose. Other members of the committee include former district judge and former information commissioner Om Prakash, CNLU assistant professor Kumar Gaurav and CNLU dean and chair professor, Panchayati Raj, SP Singh. The committee held detailed interactions with the nodal officers of different public institutions, including State Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council for three days, June 2-4, to assess the status.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court, while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Kishan Chand Jain, issued notice to the Union and state governments as well as state information commissions on a plea for effective implementation of the RTI Act, mandating public authorities to disclose information under the transparency law.
Later, the Centre wrote to the states. Bihar received four letters in this regard underlining the urgency. “In the light of the SC order, notices were served for compliance and the audit has to be completed within a timeframe. You are requested to send the IT manager, who manages the website, and the nodal manager before the committee at CNLU with all the relevant information and documents,” says the letter from KK Pathak, director general, BIPARD, to public institutions.
SP Singh, when contacted, said that the following the apex court order, the Bihar government was keen on completing the exercise to get in idea of the ground realities.
“If the desired information is proactively made available to the public without having to apply for it, it will help both the institutions as well as the information seeker. This will also lead to greater transparency, which is the ultimate objective of the RTI Act,” said Singh, adding the nodal officers and IT managers of different institutions appeared before the committee at the CNLU for three days. The committee will also visit some districts to assess the ground realities of RTI implementation.
The move is significant as Bihar has also witnessed a number of killings of RTI activists. Bihar government’s initiative “Jaankari”, claims to make RTI Act more broad-based and accessible to the common man by bridging the literacy and digital divide through phone-in services. People can track their application as well as first and second appeal status. Janakari was set up in January 2007 and it generates applications under RTI for people all over Bihar. It was also awarded the Best E-Governance Initiative by the Government of India. However, voluntary disclosure of all desired information is still not mandatorily done.