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By Shrawan
The Second Administrative Reforms Commission has been constituted to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public administration system. The Commission has been given wide terms of reference covering all aspects of public administration. The Commission in its first report decided to analyze and give recommendations on the freedom of information as the Right to Information Act has been enacted recently and is a paradigm shift in administration.
Download the complete report from Download segment.!
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By Shrawan
What is contained in confidential reports is undoubtedly ‘personal information’ about that employee. The ACRs are protected from disclosure because arguably such disclosure seriously harm interpersonal relationship in a given organization. Further, the ACR notings represent an interaction based on trust and confidence between the officers involved in initiating, reviewing or accepting the ACRs. These officers could be seriously embarrassed and even compromised if their notings are made public. There are, thus, reasonable grounds to protect all such information through a proper classification under the Official Secrets Act.
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By Shrawan
Transparency Review, an initiative of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS),
has been engaged in taking steps to make good governance a serious concern and amongst other issues has regularly published data on corruption in India.
To promote awareness and implementation of the Act, the Centre for Media Studies has set up a Transparency Study Unit. It will examine developments in RTI and associated social objectives, facilitate dissemination of relevant information and serve as a link between Media, RTI groups and activists.
Here is the journal for the month of July-Auguest 2006 (in pdf)
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By Shrawan
In the judgment F.No.CIC/AT/A/2006/00296 Dated, the 20th November, 2006. Shri A.P. Sharma Vs Cdr-At-Arms S.K.Gupta, CPIO (Navy), Integrated Headquarters, Ministry of Defence (N) it was decided that the file notings of the confidential files are exempt under Right to Information Act.
The abstract of the decision is quoted here:
File notings in general and in a confidential file in particular are very different from the other sections / parts of the files. These are a form of dialectics between those writing the notes, the underpinning of which is a certain trust that their contents shall not be ordinarily disclosed. If it were to be known that the file notings would be subject to disclosure, those writing these notes would have chosen to write the notes differently or chosen other means of communicating their views to the next superior or to the authority competent to take decision. Trust and a certain confidence in itsconfidentiality is, thus, the very crux of the architecture of the file noting.
That said, it is also necessary to differentiate between files classified as confidential and those not so classified. Arguably in the case of an unclassified file, those recording the notes are aware that the entire file can one day be called into the public domain, or at-least, that people not otherwise authorized to have access to a file may, under certain circumstances, gain access to its contents. This is what distinguishes a classified file from an unclassified one and, supports a theoretical assumption that in respect of the notings in both these genres of files, the approach of those writing the notes can be significantly different. In case of an unclassified file the employee of a public authority records his notes with full knowledge that these could be accessed at some stage by a larger number of entities, and may even find its way into the public domain under certain given circumstances. It should therefore be assumed that the nature and the character of the fiduciary relationship between the person writing the note and the persons in the chain of command to whom the note is submitted for a decision, is markedly different in case of an unclassified file from a classified one.
On the other hand, in the case of a file classified as confidential / secret or top secret, the fiduciary relationship between officers is underpinned by a certain trust as well as a certain confidence that its contents shall not be accessed by anyone not authorized to access them. Rules even provide punishment for possession of documents of classified files by unauthorized entities. The trust that characterizes file notings in confidential files is thus qualitatively different. The information contained in the notings of such classified files is given by the officer, who is also the third party, in “confidence†as described under Section 11(1) of the RTI Act.
It is, therefore, my considered view that the file-notings in the case of files classified as confidential attract the exemption of Section 8(1)(j); and if in a given case it is decided to disclose notings of a confidential file, it has to be done only in terms of Section 11(1) of the RTI Act.
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By ganpat1956
NEW DELHI: If information is power, nothing can perhaps empower you more than the sensitive economic information held by various public authorities under the finance ministry.
Not surprisingly, the finance ministry receives the most number of requests under the Right to Information Act. But then, since you cannot use RTI to access information on matters pending before the Cabinet or under investigation, nor even on matters pertaining to commercial confidence or personal details, public authorities have ample scope to reject your applications.
Therefore, the finance ministry, again, has the dubious distinction of rejecting the most number of RTI requests.
The good news is, despite such limits on the information that can be sought, there are 17 central government authorities that received at least 50 RTI requests and, yet, did not reject a single request — at least in the first financial year of the new law.
TOI has obtained three tables figuring in the first ever annual report that the Central Information Commission, an independent regulator, is due to submit to the government, within a week, on the working of RTI.
Since RTI came into force in October 2005, the report compiled on the basis of inputs received from Central government authorities across the country covers only five months, October 2005 to March 2006.
Under section 25 of the RTI Act, the government in turn will table the report in Parliament. Ironically, the list of 17 model authorities that did not reject a single RTI request during that period, despite getting at least 50 requests, is led by Delhi Development Authority, which was subsequently embroiled in the politico-legal controversy over the sealing drive in the Capital.
That was a no mean feat considering that DDA is said to have provided information without fail on as many as 1,988 requests. The next four public authorities in that list are Hindustan Shipyard (1,203 requests), ministry of social justice and empowerment (152), department of tourism (120) and National Highways Authority of India (118).
In another list, the CICs report reveals that the finance ministry received one fifth of the total number of requests made in the first five months of RTI. And, out of the 4,770 requests received by the finance ministry, 24.9% pertain to the Central Board of Excise and Customs and 17.7% to the Central Board of Direct Taxes.
Finance ministry, which received 19.5% of the total number of requests, is ahead of the next two, railways and urban development, by a wide margin. While the railways ministry got 10.9% of the requests, the urban development ministry got 10.2%.
The downside is that the finance ministry rejected 36.65% of the requests received by it. It leads even the list relating to rejected requests by a wide margin. The home ministry, the next in the list, rejected 28.65% of the requests.
RTI report card: One year of transparency-India-NEWS-The Times of India
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02/21/2018 03:26 AM
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Does Annual Confidential Report comes under RTI. If i want to see my ACR how should i approach my authorities. Please guide.
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