Survey at Government Offices to check impelmentation of RTI Act

RTI is the one of the strongest weapons that the citizen in this country can ever get. It is the easiest way to control and avoid corruption in the society and gives us a hope to dream for an honest country.

As someone rightly said, "Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending that we aim for".

With this in mind, we, the Loksatta CHC(Citizen Help Centre) started a lot of activities with RTI as a key tool, which will benefit the society in multiple ways.As part of this, on 6th March 2010,We did a survey at various government offices . Complete details below :

Event               : To check Implementation of RTI Act in Government Offices in Saroor Nagar Area

Date                : 6th March 2010

Offices Visited :

                         1. Tahsildar office

                         2. MPDO ( Mandal Parishad Development Office)

                         3. GHMC - LB Nagar Circle

Purpose          : The survey was primarily to check the implementation of the RTI Acts under sections 4(1)b and 5(1), (2), and 19(1).

RTI Acts involved and the details : 4(1)b and 5(1), (2), and 19(1)

Information that needs to be displayed : Below information needs to be displayed as per the above acts,The handbook (which will contain the details about the office, the officers within, the employees' duties and responsibilities, their names, salaries and other primary information) and board at the office entrance(which will contain the details about the Public Information Officer, Assistant Public Information Officer and Appellate Authority's name, the office address, Phone numbers, Mobile numbers, Fax numbers, Email address)

Procedure :

1) Do a survey to find out the offices which are not following RTI act

2) File a complaint to respective office and file a RTI to track the status

Activities Done :

1) Verified whether each government office has its RTI board and handbook as per sec 4(1)(b)

2) Registered a complaint for offices not following above rules and filed a RTI to track the status of the complaint

Advantages : Transparency and Accountability(This will help people contact the right person with out any confusion and they will immediately understand whom to approach, in case of issues).

Observations:

Only MPDO is having display board ( with nothing written on it ) and the remaining two have nothing to display at all.

We have filed complaint regarding the same for remaining two offices and again filed an RTI to track the status of the complaint.

Results so far:  Tahsildar office got its RTI board at entrance and we are following up for other complaints and we are expecting positive response from respecting authorities.

We are planning to file a WRIT on this in AP High court so that offices all over AP start implementing it.

Team Participated: Srinivas Ganji, Abdul Azeez, Pradeep, Savan Bandu and Praveen.

For photos of the event, visit following link,
http://picasaweb.google.com/LoksattaSanjeevani/06Mar2010SurveryAtGovernmentOffices#

All these attachments are uploaded at "files" section of loksattaSanjeevani@googlegroups.com group.

Join us in these activities. Let us fight for our rights. Let us fight for a better society and a better nation.