Information under RTI Act

Information under RTI Act

No data is centrally maintained either by Government or Central Information Commission (CIC) in respect of cases wherein the information under RTI Act has not been provided to the applicants.

CIC adjudicates the second appeals and complaints received in the Commission. The Right to Information Act, 2005 provides for imposition of penalty by CIC against the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), in pursuance of section 20 of the RTI Act. As per the information furnished by CIC, the amount of penalty imposed on such CPIOs for the last three years is as under:

Year	Penalty Imposed
2013-14	19,25,000
2014-15	7,39,000
2015-16	10,52,500

Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005 mandates timely response to citizen's request for information in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority.

Review of the implementation of the provisions of RTI Act is an ongoing process. There have been constant efforts on part of the Government to streamline and strengthen the existing mechanisms for successful and effective implementation of the RTI Act.

Government has taken several steps to strengthen the regime of RTI Act, which inter-alia include the following:

i. RTI Online Portal (https://rtionline.gov.in) was launched in August, 2013 by D/o Personnel and Training. As on 17.03.2017, 1840 Central Public Authorities have been aligned to it making it convenient for citizens to file RTI requests and First Appeals through on- line.

ii. The Government has conducted training and capacity building programs for Public Information Officers and First Appellate Authorities through State Government Training Institutes for effective implementation of the RTI Act.

iii. Ministries/Departments and other Public Authorities are proactively working towards suo-motu disclosure and more information is put on their websites so as to reduce the need for filing RTI applications.

This was stated by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Shri Raju Shetty in the Lok Sabha today.

PIB

Disclosure of information under RTI

Disclosure of information under RTI

As per guidelines dated 15.04.2015 issued by the Government of India, the Ministries/Departments of the Government of India and other Public Authorities are proactively working towards suo-motu disclosure of information on their websites so as to reduce the need for filing RTI applications.

As per the Annual Report of the Central Information Commission (CIC), 75.27% of the Public Authorities have filed their Annual Returns to the CIC for 2014-15, which is higher than the figure of 72.54 % for 2013-14, indicating an improved compliance over the previous year.

With a view to maximize suo-motu disclosure by public authorities, Government has issued guidelines to all the Ministries/Departments of Govt. of India on 15.4.2013. Government has further issued O.M. dated 29.06.2015 ensuring compliance to the recommended measures for strengthening implementation of Section 4 of RTI Act, by all public authorities. Another O.M. dated 9.7.2015 has been issued for appointment of a nodal officer of the rank of Joint Secretary for implementation of Section 4 of RTI Act.

The CIC has provided web based software known as RTI Annual Return Information System for uploading annual return online at URL http://rtiaar.nic/rtiar09/login.asp.

The CIC has, from time to time, issued letters to various defaulting Public Authorities for submission of quarterly returns.

This was stated by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Shri A. W. Rabi Bernard in the Rajya Sabha today.

PIB

Former Defence Secretary R K Mathur appointed new CIC

Former Defence Secretary R K Mathur appointed new CIC

New Delhi: Former Defence Secretary R K Mathur has been appointed as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), breaking away from the convention of appointing the head from among the serving Information Commissioners.

The post had fallen vacant after Vijai Sharma completed his tenure on December 1.

“R K Mathur has been selected as Chief Information Commissioner,” Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh told PTI.

He will have tenure of about three years, till he attains the age of 65 years.

62-year-old Mathur, a retired IAS officer of Tripura cadre, was made Defence Secretary for a fixed two-year term on May 28, 2013.

Mathur, who did his graduation from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and post graduation from IIT, Delhi, has held various positions in his cadre state and at the Centre.

He had been Secretary in both Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Defence Production and Supplies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led selection committee, which has Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and leader of Congress Party in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjuna Kharge, as its members, had on Wednesday finalised Mathur’s name.

President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent for appointment of Mathur as CIC, official sources said.
As per RTI Act, CIC is appointed by the President on the recommendation of the selection committee.
The Central Information Commission had been headless twice since the BJP government came into power in 2014.

Earlier, it was without a chief for nearly 10 months after completion of the tenure of the then Chief Information Commissioner Rajiv Mathur in August 2014.

At present, there are seven Information Commissioners– Basant Seth, Yashovardhan Azad, Sharat Sabharwal, Manjula Prasher, M A Khan Yusufi, Madabhushanam Sridhar Acharyulu and Sudhir Bhargava.
As per convention, the senior most Information Commissioner is chosen as chief. Presently, Seth is the senior-most Information Commissioner.

The Commission comprises of one chief and ten Information Commissioners. There is still vacancy of three Information Commissioners.

A total of 33,724 complaints and appeals are pending in the Commission, as per official data.

“It is for the first time that government has appointed somebody other than a serving Information Commissioner to the post,” said Commodore (Rtd.) Lokesh Batra, RTI activist.

PTI