PROCEEDING OF THE IMPLEMENTATION CORE COMMITTEE ON RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT, 2005 HELD ON 22.08.05 IN THE SECOND FLOOR CONFERENCE HALL OF THE ORISSA SECRETARIAT

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Chief Secretary presided over the meeting. The list of members who participated in the meeting is enclosed in a statement at Annexure-‘A’.

Initiating the discussion, the Chief Secretary explained various aspects of the Right to Information Act, 2005. He stated that the Right to Information Act has been enacted on June 2005. Certain provisions (Section 4,5,15,16, 24,27 & 28) which are related to the preparations necessary for the implementation of the Act have come into force from the date of enactment and other provisions will come into force on October 12, 2005. He further observed that this is a piece of legislation that will bring great benefits for members of the public and for the public authorities subject to the Act. For Public Authorities, the Act will strengthen the processes of accountability to the electorate, help to drive forwarded, better documented and more rigorous decision making and enable more efficient management of corporate information.

After detailed discussion on the agenda items, the following decisions were taken. These decisions will definitely enable the Public Authorities to commence preparations necessary for the implementation of the Act.

1.                  Public Authority

            (a)             In Section 2(h) of the R.T.I. Act,2005 the definition “Public Authority” has been given . According to this definition the following bodies in the State of Orissa are to be treated as “Public Authority”-

(i)                  All Administrative Departments of Secretariat

(ii)                All Heads of the Department

(iii)               All Junior Heads of the Department

(iv)            In district level, each Department will take a view separately whether to declare Public Authority for any district level office of their department..

(v)            Also each Revenue Sub-division and each Tahasil will be treated as Public Authority.

            (vi)            All Public Corporations, Universities, Councils, Authorities, Institutions                   Autonomous Bodies (whose office are located at different levels in the manner             Directorate)

(vii)            All local bodies in Urban Areas including  N.A.C. ,Municipality and            Municipal Corporations.

(viii)            All local bodies in Rural Area such as Grama Panchayats, Panchayat Samities   and Zilla Parisad.

(ix)            All N.G.Os substantially financed to be identified by P & C Department to be treated as Public Authority.

(b)               Apprisal

The officers and employees of all Public Authorities to be apprised with a complete understanding of this Act. They may be provided with necessary materials about this Act and meetings be organized in order to explain the scope of  the Act. This action may be undertaken at all levels within public authorities located under all Department.

2.                  Appointment of PIOs/APIOs & D.D.A.

All Public Authorities will be required to designate Officer under the following three grades-

a)                  Public Information Officer-PIO (Sec.5)

b)                  Asst. P.I.O.-APIO(Sec.5)

c)                  Departmental Appellate Authority-(Sec.19)

The following guidelines may be observed while designating such officers-

(i)            All Administrative Departments & Heads of the Departments are required to designate officers not below the level Deputy Secretary as P.I.O. and similarly Under Secretary as A.P.I.O. and Joint /Additional Secretary as First Appellate Authority. Similarly all Junior Heads of Department are required to designate P.I.O., A.P.I.O. & D.A.A. at their level.

The list of such officers with their address, designation and phone number will be made available to I & P.R. Department by 10.09.2005. Chief Secretary desired that all departments may prepare a detailed plan about the hierarchy of officers under their administrative control so that a concrete decision can be taken for designating the P.I.O / A.A. in the rest of the Public Authority.

(ii)            Again at the District level the Collector will nominate a responsible Officer as the Public Information Officer and the A.D.M. will be declared as 1^st Appellate Authority. All the district level Officers of various departments under the direct control of Collector will be declared as Asst. Public Information Officers and will assist the P.I.O. in due discharge of his responsibilities.

(iii)            In every Sub-division, the Collector will nominate a responsible Officer as P.I.O. and the Sub-Collector will be 1^st Appellate Authority in respect of P.I.O. of his Office. Other sub-divisional level Officers under the direct control of Sub-Collector will function as Asst. Public Information Officer.

(iv)            In Tahasil, the one Additional Tahasildar will be nominated to function as P.I.O. and the Tahasildar as 1^st Appellate Authority.

(v)            In Block level, a Senior Extension Officer will be P.I.O. and the B.D.O. as 1^st Appellate Authority.

(vi)            In G.P. level , E.O, G.P/G.P. Section will act as P.I.O and the G.P.E.O. 1^st Appellate Authority

(vii)            In U.L.B level Addl. E.O./H.C will be P.I.O & E.O will act as Appellate Authority.

(viii)            PIOs, Asst. PIOs and the Appellate Authority may be designated in all NGOs which have been identified as Public authorities. P&C Department will issue suitable guidelines.

(ix)            The same procedure will be followed in designating P.I.Os,A.P.I.Os and Appellate Authority in respect of all Universities, Public Corporations, Boards, Councils, Authorities, Institutions, Autonomous bodies.

3.                  Proactive disclosure

According to the provision of Section 4 of the R.T.I. Act, every Public Authority is required to disclose information voluntarily in 17 points by 12.10.2005. Steps should be taken to go for voluntary disclosure of information to the maximum extent so that the strength of application seeking information will be substantially reduced.

(a)    The Information Technology, Panchayati Raj, Law, Finance & G. A. Department are to develop requisite web-format by 31.08.2005 regarding the list of Acts, Rules, Circulars, Guidelines issued in respect of all administrative departments.

(b)   Finance Department is to prepare a list of all 6,000 D.D.Os of the State, list of officers & employees, their pay scale in terms of discussion earlier held at an officer level committee.

(c)    Finance Department & all Administrative Departments should make P.D.F versions of their departmental budget & give it in the web-site of respective departments.

(d)   All Administrative departments should prepare soft copies of all other manuals as prescribed by the Act & give it in the Web-site as per details indicated in the officer level committee.

4.                  Training

(a)            A State level seminar is to be organized at Bhubaneswar.

(b)            The Gopabandhu Academy of Administration, Bhubaneswar will organise workshop for Officers of all Departments, Heads of Office, Junior Heads of Office and Training of the trainers for District  level during 10^st – 30^th September,2005.

(c)            The I & P.R. Department will place Rs.10.00 lakhs with the Director General, Gopabandhu Academy of Administration early on requisition by taking advance from O.C.F.

(d)            The Special Secretary, G.A. Deptt. will take immediate steps to post one additional Resource Person in Gopabandhu Academy of Administration in due consultation with the Director General to be kept in exclusive charge of Training on Right to Information Act.

(e)            A special training programme will be organized for PRI functionaries     including the Secretary of G.P. by the SIRD, Bhubaneswar under the close supervision of P.R Department & Gopabandhu Academy of Administration.

(f)            A special training programme will be organized for N.G.Os & Civil Society Organisation at Bhubaneswar by the P & C. Department with the assistance of Gopabandhu Academy of Administration.

(g)            A separate meeting will be held on finalization of details of Training programme shortly.

(h)            The G.A. (A.R.) Department should coordinate the efforts of D.G. , G.A.A for preparing the contents of training & the list of officers to undergo training in first lot in association of Information & Public Relations Department and Law Department, so that district level training can be conducted as a follow up by the Collectors at the district level.

5.                  State Information Commission, Section 15,16,17

(a)                The details of constitution of State Information Commission, term of Office and conditions of service will be discussed in the meeting of the high level appointment committee.

(b)               The staffing pattern, Office accommodation and extending other logistic support will be discussed in the next Core Committee meeting.

6.            Receiving Application

             In order to facilitate the public, their application for seeking information from the Administrative Departments located in the Secretariat will be received in a separate counter to be arranged by G.A. Department in the close proximity of Reception Counter of the Secretariat. The same procedure is to be adopted in respect of Heads of the Department & Junior Heads of the Department.

 7.            Amendment to existing Acts / Rules etc.

Section 22 of the RTI Act envisages that the contemplated Act would over-ride any other Act, Rule or Order. It is suggested that an immediate review by the Administrative Departments shall be made of all such Acts and instruments and amendments made thereto, wherever necessary, so that the points of conflict between the RTI Act and other Acts/Rules/Instructions etc. are eliminated/restricted.

8.            Framing Rules

(a)            Section 28(1) of the RTI Act confers on the various competent authorities the power to make rules so as to carry out the provisions of the Act.

(b)            In case there is any need to make rules, for which the competent authority, as defined in Section 2(b), is required to make rules for giving effect to the provisions of the RTI Act, suitable action may be initiated in this regard on priority.

(c)            The draft Rule has been attempted and endorsed to Law Department for scrutiny & vetting. A Sub-Committee comprising of Principal Secretary, Law , Secretary, I & P.R. ,Addl. Secretary, Finance, Addl. Secretary ,Revenue, Addl. Secretary, G.A.(A.R.) is constituted to go through the draft rule and to recommend the final version to be considered  by Government.

(d)            In the next Core Committee meeting, this draft Rule will be discussed and will be given a final shape. Also it was decided that the Sub-Committee will suggest requisite operational guidelines for implementing the Act.

9.            Internal Procedure

This is another key operational aspect , which has to be looked into by each public authority . It is expected that once the Act comes into force, each public authority shall have to follow well defined procedures so that the entire process is streamlined and the decisions on request for information are taken at an appropriate level. Keeping this in view, it may be desirable to examine the issue now itself at the level of Administrative Department so that internal procedures, which include the channel for collecting information, creating facilities for inspection of documents /taking of samples, fixing level at which a decision shall be taken on a request, preparation of a document for supply to requester, etc., are formulated in advance.

10.       Time bound implementation Action Plan

A)            Preparing Manual (prioritized list)              -               21.09.05

B)            Proactive Disclosure (first lot)                       -            30.09.05

C)       Appointment of PIO s / APIO s

           & Departmental Appellate Authorities            -                10.09.05

D)      Appointment of State Information Commissioner-               02.10.05

E)            Internal Procedure                                            -           30.09.05

F)            Training of PIO s / DAA                            -                   30.09.05

            (Secretariat level / Heads of the Deptt. /

Training of the Trainers of District level)

11.       Budget

Without any indicator, past figure and final decision on certain issues it is an up-hill task to prepare the Budget for this scheme. However, a tentative Budget has been prepared by I & P.R. Department and sent to Finance Department for consideration.

Since this is a new Act , no funds has been provided in the Budget Estimate of 2005-06 . The Administrative Department is to move proposal for availing Rs.50.00 lakhs from O.C.F. against the  tentative budget  estimate of Rs.1.16 crore.

12.            Intelligence and Security Organisation

There is a stipulation in the Act (Section 24) that, the Act shall not apply to such intelligence and Security Organizations established by the State Government. The requisite notification regarding exemption of such agencies will be issued before the Act comes into force. The nodal department will issue requisite notification on receipt of information from the appropriate Department.

13.       There will be detailed discussion in the Collectors Conference which is going to be held on the 23^rd September regarding the implementation of R.T.I. Act, 2005 & other related matters. The General Administration Department will look into this matter.

14.       The Nodal Department i.e. Information & Public Relations Department will maintain the Directory of P.I.Os, A.P.I.os and 1^st Appellate Authority of all Administrative Departments.

15.       The Oriya version of the Act is to be prepared by the Information & Public Relations Department & printed at Government Press and will be available in the PDF format.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the chair & the participants.

                       (Dr. Subas Pani)

Chief Secretary &Chief Development Commissioner

Annexure – ‘A’

The following members were present.

1.                        Development Commissioner & Addl. Chief Secretary to Government

2.                        Principal Secretary, Law Department

3.                        Principal Secretary, Home Department

4.                        Special Secretary to Government, G.A. Department

5.                        Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Panchayati Raj Department

6.                        Commissioner-cum-Secretary, I & P. R. Department

7.                        Addl. Secretary to Government, Revenue Department

8.                        Addl. Secretary to Government, Finance Department

9.                        Chief Executive, OCAC & Director, Information Technology Department

10.                    Addl. Secretary to Government, G.A. Department