Important suggestions for effective implementation of the RTI Act-2009

Some important suggestions for the Information Commission regarding the effective implementation of the RTI Act-2009 are as below:

1. In order to raise awareness among the officials about the RTI Act, 2009, the Chief Information Commissioner, Information Commissioners and Secretary of the commission should participate in the opinion exchange meetings of the Cabinet Division and in the various seminars organized in the divisional and district levels.

The implementation strategies of RTI Act should be included in the seminar and meeting agendas as well.

2. Training programs should be conducted to encourage the officials working with the print and electronic media to appeal for information using the RTI prescribed format.

3. Necessary measurements should be taken to avail a simple version of the RTI Act to the general people and to encourage all government and non-governmental organizations to follow, practice and implement the Act.

4. Consciousness should be created among the information providers and receivers regarding the RTI Act.

5. Some important terms of the law should be thoroughly defined and some conditions, such as the objective to seek information should be included in the RTI prescribed application.

6. Proviso on punishment should be included in the RTI Act in order to prevent manipulating the attained information.

7. The RTI Act should be compatible with the other administrative rules and regulations.

8. Extensive initiatives should be taken to create awareness in the grassroots level on this new Act.

9. The applicants should be discouraged to appeal for information without specific reason and precautionary measurements should be adopted to prevent misusing the law.

10. Separate fund should be allotted in every organization for providing information.

11. Training sessions and positive demonstrations should be promoted to increase the consciousness of the general mass including the Designated Officers and the applicants.

12. The RTI Act should be incorporated in the academic curriculums and training manuals of various organizations. It may be mentioned that already the RTI act has been added to the text books of class nine and ten from 2013.

13. Mutual interaction between the people of every class and profession of the society should be encouraged to remove the traditional culture of secrecy.

14. A guideline of assigning Designated Officers and a manual on their duties and responsibilities should be issued.

15. Pro-active disclosure of information should be encouraged and the decisions of the ministry and departments should be uploaded in their websites.

16. Unicode should be used in cases of uploading information into websites.

17. Steps should be taken to connect ‘Grievance Redress System’ with the RTI Act implementation process.

18. ‘Information Providing Section’ should be established in all government, non-government and autonomous institutions and necessary manpower should be assigned or recruited.

19. Branch of the Information Commission should be established at the divisional administrative level.

20. The RTI Act implementation process should be monitored on regular basis.

21. Appealing documentary films should be projected in assistance with the electronic and print media as well as the District Information Offices to attract the general people of the district, union and village levels.

22. Necessary manpower, office equipment and funds should be allocated in order to facilitate the Designated Officers in carrying out their responsibilities smoothly.

23. The general people should be encouraged to be involved in collecting information from various organizations.

24. 1st July of every year should be celebrated as the ‘Right to Information Day’ in order to raise awareness among people on right to information, therefore should arrange rallies, meetings and seminars at the district and sub-district levels.

25. Campaigns should be conducted through the print and electronic media to increase mass consciousness and printed forms should be distributed properly among various organizations.

26. Notice boards containing information of the Designated Officers, Appellate Authority and the address of the Information Commission should be hanged in every government and non-governmental organizations.

27. Mass awareness programs, such as public drama, cultural shows, rallies etc should be arranged and posters, leaflets and billboards should be distributed in order to make the Act popular among the people.