rti activism: Modi govt's 13% ministries, 6% departments comply by Cabinet Secretariat's RTI transparency directive

[Sajib Nandi 269]

Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh has admitted in the Rajya Sabha that the Government of India has “no mechanism” to monitor compliance with its own transparency directive, requiring each ministry and department to submit monthly report to the Cabinet Secretariat on proactive disclosures to be made under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

 

Singh said this in reply to an unstarred query regarding the April 2016 Central Information Commission (CIC) directive to the Cabinet Secretariat to upload monthly reports of work done by all Ministries and Departments on their respective websites. Two months later, the Cabinet Secretariat issued a circular to all Central Ministries and Departments requiring them to upload the monthly reports.

 

Meanwhile, the Delhi-based advocacy group Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), which works on RTI issues, has said that its “quick website check” of 52 Central Ministries and as many Departments reveals that only 13% of the Ministries and 5.7% of 52 Departments are compliant with the transparency directive by publishing monthly reports up to December 2017.

 

If the Ministries and Departments that have their own websites are counted, the compliance rate for Ministries goes up to 14.89% and 6.5%, respectively, says CHRI’s Venkatesh Nayak in a report based on the quick check.

 

Read more at: COUNTERVIEW: Modi govt's 13% ministries, 6% departments comply by Cabinet Secretariat's RTI transparency directive: Report

[Prasad GLN 1,759]

How many times and How Hon.CJK has been fighting is known to the forum. But, how many applicants can file RTI Application to each public authority in the country and then file complaint against each public authority, and at what cost and time ?