DELTA Org: Hon'ble CIC appeals for better implementation of RTI with help of social groups

Dear Friend,

As you are probably aware, I had organised a meeting on February 19, 2010 to interact with various civil society groups on the issues relating to compliance of Section 4, RTI Act by Public Authorities.

Over 65 persons representing more than 35 organisations attended the meeting. Everyone’s participation is deeply appreciated and I found the discussion which ensued during the meeting to be insightful and very helpful.

As promised, I am enclosing a copy of the minutes of the meeting and a list of persons who attended the meeting along with their contact details (enclosed). A googlegroup has been created with the name Section4monitoring (http://groups.google.co.in/group/section4monitoring) and all persons who gave their e-mail addresses during the meeting will be invited to this group in a few days. The googlegroup is public and persons who could not attend the meeting are welcome to join it.

I am of the opinion that there is a need to prioritise the information which needs to be disclosed under Section 4 based on matters which are important to citizens and the disclosure has to be made in a citizen friendly format. I am hoping that civil society groups and individuals can assist the Commission in this endeavour by suggesting what kind of information should be disclosed by public authorities on a priority basis and preferably also suggest the format in which the information would be most useful for citizens. During the meeting I have stressed on the fact that the Commission needs the help of civil society groups to monitor the compliance of its orders with regard to disclosure of information in accordance with Section 4 of the RTI Act and to ensure that the information. E-mails can be sent to rtimonitoring@gmail.com in this regard.

Furthermore, if there are persons interested in volunteering to monitor websites of different Public Authorities in the context of mandatory disclosures which should be made under Section 4 of the RTI Act, such persons can get in touch with the Commission at rtimonitoring@gmail.com. For noncompliance of the Commission’s Section 4 orders do file a Complaint stating what information has not been disclosed by the Public Authority.

After reviewing the suggestions and observations that were made during the meeting, the Commission has decided to look into the following areas in the coming week and I hope to address the remaining issues soon after:

Disclosure of information by the MCD relating to its budget, fund allocation etc.
Disclosure of information by Labour Department, Govt. of Delhi.
Disclosure of information by the Slum & JJ Department relating to authorised and unauthorised colonies-names, location, plot allocation records.
Disclosure of information relating to Public Private Partnerships that the NDMC has entered into.
Disclosure of information relating to hospitals run by MCD and Govt. of Delhi.
Disclosure of lists of persons residing in Delhi in 1991 and 1998.
Disclosure of information relating to the Yamuna Action Plan