Dear All , An Very Old and Stale News which Appeared in all News papers here in Bangalore . The News also does not Cover the other side of This report , Which is That the Report was Made a Few Students Very selectively choosen from Certain Prestigios College in Bangalore , These Students Do not even known the Official Langague Kannada . They were supposed to be Guided by an RTI activist but Was Being Monitored by the NGO mentioned in the News report .Hence Obviously Several Hundreds of State Depts /Line dpts and Organisations/Boards Etc Were not Scrutinised for SEc 4.1.b Declarations which are in Kannada , Further All these Survey were done on Desk (as Desk Survey) which Means Nobody Moved out to any office but only websites were Looked into . Further Unfortunately all these Field Investigators or surveyors Were not themselves aware of how to make RTI Requests and that too extract the suomoto Declarations For which we RTI Crusaders with Much Struggle and Coaxing got Orders From our information Commission that There is No application fees (see Sec 4.4) and The Fee Charged is only half for Regular Information. These Facts were Culled out by my Fellow Trustee Mr B H veeresha and He also adviced the Administrators of the NGO to Use RTI for reliability Which was agreed by Them . Incidentally He has Put These on Board of several RTI Groups Hence The Findings have More Skewness and Are Not Perfect or Show a Correct Picture N vikramsimha ,Trustee RTI Study Centre & KRIA Katte , #12 Sumeru Sir M N Krishna Rao Road , Basvangudi < Bangalore 560004.
--- On Wed, 1/7/09, Jagnarain Sharma <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Jagnarain Sharma <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AntiBriberyCampaign] Nagaland tops national RTI charts > To: [email protected] > Cc: "Humjanege" <[email protected]> > Date: Wednesday, 1 July, 2009, 7:11 PM > Dear Batra > All RTI activists must > welcome Nagaland for this achievement > and congrat. > Regards > Dr. JN Sharma > > > On 7/1/09, lokesh batra <[email protected]> > wrote: > > http://www.morungexpress.com/frontpage/27376.html?print > > > > Nagaland tops national RTI charts > > > > Al Ngullie > > > > …But ill-informed officers ‘embarrass’ > > > > Morung Express News: The full assessment report on the > performance of > > states, in complying with the suo moto disclosures and > provisions of the > > Right to Information Act 2005, has Nagaland topping > the charts over all the > > other states in the country. Nagaland beat even > infamous administrative > > nightmares like New Delhi and Information Technology > capital Karnataka hands > > down. And the Union Territories fared even ‘worse’ > in performance, the > > report of the Bangalore-based Public Affairs Center > showed. > > > > The full report was obtained recently. The assessment > covered twelve central > > government ministries or departments sixteen > departments each of the 28 > > state governments and the six Union Territories, the > Central Information > > Commission and the State Information Commissions of 27 > state governments. > > > > According to the report, Nagaland led the top five > with 62% and Delhi (56%), > > Bihar (55%), Punjab (51%) and Andhra Pradesh (49%) > following in the top > > list. Of the low-ranked states Jharkhand, Assam and > Arunachal Pradesh were > > at the nadir with 0%, while Uttarakhand secured 3% and > Kerala 6%. The > > surprising result was that of India’s IT state > Karnataka, whose performance > > was “below average” at 30.2% – ranked 15th among > 28 states. > > > > According to the report, the “degree of compliance > seems” to correlate with > > recent histories of administrative reforms – or > Information Technology > > initiatives of the state governments in concern. The > report cited the case > > of Nagaland – it was one of the first states to > introduce administrative > > reforms with e-governance as the flagship drive. > > In contrast, for Delhi, it is mandatory for every > department to allocate 2% > > of its total IT allocation “initiatives” within > the department in concern. > > Bihar was commended for its innovative call-center > system (or “Jaankaari”) > > to providing information under the RTI Act. > > > > The downside for Nagaland > > > > Now the damper before any celebrations commence: many > departmental officers > > or Public Information Officers in Nagaland entrusted > with providing demanded > > information are too “casual” and ill-informed on > RTI. In fact, many officers > > are so inept at handling RTI applications that a case > in January this year > > saw the Nagaland Information Commission lamenting that > the officers are only > > “embarrassing themselves and their departments.” > > > > On January 28 in Kohima this year, the Information > Commission rebuked senior > > officers of the department of Power for pleading > ‘ignorance’ about the > > provisions of RTI. A citizen had sought information > from the Power > > department but response was delayed over the claim of > not being “conversant” > > with handling RTI applications and its provisions. > This plea of the officer > > in concern – according to a copy of the > commission’s proceeding obtained > > here – is neither reasonable nor acceptable, the > commission stated. > > > > “The commission has raised this issue a number of > times in meetings with > > heads of administrative departments and heads of > departments and also with > > chief secretary and senior officers for the last two > years,” the > > commission’s record quoted the information > commissioners. “…in many cases > > officers take these matters casually, and do not apply > their mind, thereby > > embarrassing themselves and their departments when > they receive and have to > > handle RTI applications,” the commission > lamented > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > mailto:[email protected] > > > Yahoo! recommends that you upgrade to the new and safer Internet Explorer 8. http://downloads.yahoo.com/in/internetexplorer/
