Block-level Interactive Workshop on RTI Act 2005 held at
BRC Conference Hall, Jharbandhin Baragarh District under the joint aegis of
Padampur Sub-divisional administration and
Samuhik Marudi Pratikar Udyam Network, Padampur on 21st Nov.’ 06
As per the instruction of Orissa Information Commission, Bhubaneswar the Sub-Collector Padampur decided to organize a series of Interactive Workshops on RTI Act at the level of each of the 6 Blocks involving the officials, PRI leaders, journalists, lawyers and NGOs with a view to provide the participants with an in-depth operational knowledge about the RTI Act and Orissa RTI Rules. Further it was decided that such workshops were to be organized under the joint aegis of Padampur Sub-divisional administration and Samuhik Marudi Pratikar Udyam, Padampur a network of civil society groups working for the empowerment of marginalized sections of society.
The sixth and last one in the series of such Workshops was held at Block Resource Centre, Jharbandh on 21st of November 2006 at around 11.30 pm and it continued upto 2 pm, followed by mid-day lunch. It was attended by about 100 participants including guests and resource persons. Seated in the dais were Bargarh Zilla Parishad Chairman Sri M.R.Singh Bariha, Chairperson Jharbandh Panchayat Samiti Smt.Durlavi Bhoi, Sub-divisional Revenue Officer-cum-PIO Padampur Sri P.k.Sarangi (a resource person), BDO Padampur Sri Damodar Sahu (a resource person), BDO Jharbandh Sri Purna Ch. Pradhan and Sub-divisional Information and Public Relations Officer-cum-Assistant PIO Padampur Sri Sarat Chandra Sethi. Other notable persons present in the Workshop were Sri Chitta Behera Advisor to Orissa Campaign for Right to Information, Sri Fakir Charan Rout Coordinator SMPU Network Padampur and Sri Birabhadra Sahu Member Baragarh Zilla Parishad.
The proceedings of the Workshop started after it was formally inaugurated by Chairman Bargarh Zilla Parishad and Chairperson Jharbandh Panchayat Samiti by way of lighting the ceremonial candle. The BDO Jharbandh Sri Purna Chandra Pradhan extended a brief but warm note of welcome to all the invited guests, resource persons and official and non-official participants who came to attend the Workshop.
Following him Sri Sarat Ch. Sethi Sub-divisional Information and Public Relations Officer-cum-Assistant PIO Padampur gave a preliminary talk on the objective behind organizing of the Interactive Block-level Workshops on RTI Act. He said that in Padampur Sub-division already 5 Block-level Workshops have been conducted, namely at Sohela, Bijepur, Padampur, Gaisilat and Paikmal and the current one being held today is the concluding one. He further mentioned that two resource persons, SRO-cum-PIO of Padampur Sub-Collector’s Office and BDO-cum-Appellate Officer of Padampur (Bodasambar) Block, who had received the lessons on RTI Act in the training programme recently organized by Orissa Soochana Commission at Bhubaneswar have come here to explain the provisions of the Act in detail for the knowledge of all participants. As regards the method of the Workshop, it would be basically an inter-active one, in the sense that following the talks by the resource persons, the participants shall be allowed to raise any question or doubt about the Act and its operationalisation at the field level, to be answered by the resource persons.
Sri P.K.Sarangi, SRO-cum-PIO of Padampur Sub-division:
Then Sri P.K.Sarangi, SRO-cum-PIO of Padampur Sub-division gave a detail talk on the provisions made under RTI Act as perceived by him from the recent training programme organized by State Information Commission. He first said that with the consent of BDO Jharbandh, he has decided to deliver the talk in Koshali language, as it would facilitate a better grasp of his talk by the majority of participants present. Then he spoke as follows:
“The RTI Act applied to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kasmir. The State of J&K has been excepted because as per Article 370 of our Constitution, it has a Constitution of its own. The Act has been enforced in the State of Orissa too, and the Government of Orissa have accordingly declared the RTI Rules-2005 with effect from the month of October 2005. The RTI Act is a unique law in the sense that unlike the other laws which are just published in the official gazette and then informed to the concerned public authorities for the purpose of enforcement by them, the RTI Act 2005 has a built-in provision, that binds all public authorities to propagate and popularize its provisions among the people in order to enable them to make use of the Act. And our State Government has been making all-out efforts in this direction. In Padampur Sub-division itself, we have already conducted 5 Block level Workshops on RTI Act, and today’s is the last one. As is well-known, the areas we live in are backward, and the distance from here to Raipur in Chhatishgarh is equal to the distance from here to Sambalpur in Orissa. The people living here are afflicted with so many problems, including the lack of information about so many things. The RTI Act may prove useful to them in this regard.
“It is pertinent to explain such basic questions- ‘What is information?’, Who is entitled to receive it?’ and lastly, ‘Who shall provide the information?’. As regards what is information, it consists of the notings of a file, contents kept in a floppy or CD ROM or any other electronic medium. The RTI Act also includes the right to ask for the sample of a material (say, for instance, sand or rod etc. used in the construction work), and the right to inspect a work.
“As regards who is entitled to receive information, he or she must be a citizen of India. That is why he/she while applying for information has to provide an identification mark of citizenship in the shape of Voter’s card, Passport, BPL card, APL Card, Land Patta or Pan Card etc. But a person shouldn’t use his/her official designation while applying for information under the Act.
“As regards who are bound by this law to provide information, or in other words, where to apply for information, they are all kinds of public authorities, from Panchayat to Parliament, from SDJM Court to Supreme Court and all offices under the control of Central and State Governments. The NGOs receiving the Government grant-in-aid are also obligated to provide information under the Act. And as regards whom to apply for information, they are the PIOs, who should have been appointed in every office within 100 days of the enforcement of the Act as per its Section. The date of commencement of the Act as already mentioned was 12th of June 2005 and that of its complete enforcement 12th of October 05. In Padampur Sub-division, for instance, the Office of Sub-Collector, all Tahsils and all Block Offices are supposed to have PIOs appointed for the purpose. In case of a bigger office, an Assistant PIO may be appointed to facilitate the work of PIO. As per the said Section, every office should appoint an Appellate Officer, who would be senior in rank to the PIO and whose duty is to hear the grievance, if any against the PIO.
“If an applicant be aggrieved by the non-response or wrongful response of the PIO, he/she might prefer his/her first appeal under Section 19(1) of the Act against the PIO before the 1st Appellate Officer of the said office, who is supposed to give his/her decision within 30 days of the appeal so made. If the aggrieved appellant is not satisfied with the decision of the 1st appellate authority, then he/she might prefer a second and final appeal within 90 days against the same before the Information Commission, whose decision shall be final and binding on all parties.
“The Section 4 of the Act says that every public authority should have made a proactive disclosure of 17 categories of information concerning itself through different means including internet within 120 days of the enactment of the RTI law i.e. by 12th October 2005. The proactive disclosures, that every office is obligated to make under the Act, concern its functions, functionaries and their pay and allowances etc. Of particular note among the 17 categories of information is the one that concerns the various schemes handled by an office and beneficiaries of each such scheme and progress including expenditures made in respect of each scheme. Such schemes, for instance, may be Indira Awas Yozana, ICDS, Balika Samruddhi Yozana or Old-age Pension. There is no need at all for making an application to get the information covered under Section 4. And as regards the fee to be paid for obtaining the information covered under Section 4, the actual cost of information is to be paid.
“If one wants specific information on any matter, he/she has to apply for it in Form-A along with payment of an application fee of Rs.10/- through treasury challan or cash to the PIO of the concerned office. The PIO is to provide an acknowledgement of the receipt of application and the application fee. A person belonging to a BPL family is exempted from paying the application fee, provided he/she would attach a photocopy of his/her BPL card to the application. The PIO shall respond to such applications in 30 days. However, if the information sought pertains to life or liberty of a person, the PIO has to respond within 48 hours. But the concerned applicant has to produce a proof of how the information sought concerns his/her life or liberty. As for instance of a case of life or liberty- if a person is taken to custody of a Police Station or a Jail, any citizen has a right to know the exact whereabouts and condition of the person so booked. If the PIO doesn’t respond within the stipulated deadline, then such non-response on his/her part shall be considered a case of deemed refusal, against which appeal can be made by the applicant. An Appeal can also be made against the PIO if the latter provides incomplete, confusing or wrong information.
“As regards the cost of information to be paid by the applicant, it is Rs.2/- per page of A4 size paper. In case of a bigger size, the actual cost is to be paid. The cost of information provided through electronic media like Floppy or CD is Rs.50/- against each. The PIO shall intimate in Form-B about how much cost is to be paid by an applicant. If the PIO think that the requested information is exempt from disclosure under the Act, then he/she is required to mention the grounds of rejection in Form C (intimation of rejection). The PIO would also mention in the above-said Form C the particulars of first appellate authority, before who the applicant can lodge an appeal. As per Section 19(1), the first appeal is to be made in Form-D along with payment of 1st appeal fee of Rs.20/- to be remitted through court fee stamps. And if the appellant is not satisfied with the decision of the 1st appellate authority, he/she may prefer a second appeal in Form-E against the said decision before Soochana Commission paying a fee of Rs.25/- to be remitted through court fee stamps.
“If the Information Commission on hearing the appeal so made, is convinced that the PIO has failed to discharge his/her duty to provide the information in a time-bound manner, they can penalize the errant PIO with a fine of Rs.250/- against each day’s delay upto a maximum of Rs.25,000/- as provided under Section 20(1) of the Act. Further as per Section 20(2), the Commission may order initiation of proceedings for disciplinary action of any sort as provided under the Government Servant Conduct Rules against the said PIO for intentional violation of the RTI Act.
“As regard the grounds of exemption from disclosure under the Act, these are mentioned under Section 8 of the Act. Such grounds are, for instance, sovereignty of the country, commercial confidence and fiduciary relation etc. The term ‘fiduciary relation’ needs some explanation. For instance, what a patient discloses before a doctor out of trust is not liable to disclosure to another person under the Act. Besides the above grounds of exemption, the Act in its Second Schedule has listed out 18 nos. of security and intelligence agencies of the country, which would remain outside the purview of the Act. They are not bound by this law to provide information to the public.”
Sri Damodar Sahu, BDO Padampur:
Sri Sahu, who was the other resource person of the day rose to deliver his talk, based upon the inputs he had received from the training programme organized recently by State Information Commission in Bhubaneswar. The talk by Sri Sahu was as follows:
“The previous speaker has discussed the subject so comprehensively that little has been left out for the present speaker to deal with. The real test of the omissions and commissions of the Act shall be borne out in due course of time when all of us together try to implement it. Now a pertinent question may arise, though India got independence from the British rule back in 1947, why a revolutionary law like RTI Act came so late i.e in the year 2005? As a matter of history, everybody knows that the first Civil Disobedience Movement was started in our country against the British rule in early 20s of the last century under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. Under the impact of this movement, the Satyagrahis and other people started asking for various kinds of information from the offices run by the British Government. The British rulers who were unwilling to share official information with the people of their colony brought about the Official Secrets Act in 1923, just to deny information to Indians on matters relating to governance of the country. Since then, and even after independence, the offices of our country used to be run in secrecy due to prevalence of this law. Of course the Constitution gave some freedom, though in an implicit manner, to the citizens to know the affairs of the administration. But still there was no outright freedom of a citizen to ask for official information as a matter of right. For the first time the RTI Act 2005 overrode the long-prevailing Official Secrets Act 1923 and has made transparency in administration a rule, and secrecy an exception. Now that the RTI Act is in force, there shall not be any confidentiality in how we run our offices, and every act of ours shall remain open to the public.
“The next question arises, from whom a citizen can demand information? As already mentioned by the previous speaker, every office has been instructed to appoint PIOs for providing information under the Act. For instance, the EO (Executive Officer) of a Panchayat has been designated as the PIO of the Gram Panchayat. One can go to him and ask, for instance, how much money was sanctioned for a particular project under SGRY, how much money was actually spent and what sort of materials (earth, sand, stone chips etc.) were used and the like?
“Next, one can also ask about why somebody’s application for Indira Awas was not granted, though it was recommended by Palli Sabha. It is all the more important to ask such questions because of malfeasance in delivery system run by our offices. in one case it was noticed that the name of a person who applied for IAY was at serial no.3 in the list approved by Palli Sabha, but he was not awarded with the same whereas some others whose name had appeared below that of the above person had got it. On noticing such an anomaly, it was soon corrected by his office and the no.3 person got his due under IAY at last.
“It is a fact that there are some officers who are deliberately playing mischief with the law. In view of this, the RTI Act provides for disclosure of all official information, through which corrupt and dubious practices of these ill-intentioned officers can come to limelight. And if the PIO who is supposed to disclose all such information, refuses to do so with an aim to give protection to these dishonest elements, then he can be penalized under the RTI Act
“But it is expected that nobody should ask for information using this Act just to harass the Govt officers. So far the implementation of the Act is concerned; it is still at the stage of its infancy. Every law or a scheme requires time to take roots. So all of us should work in a cooperative manner so that the RTI Act is properly implemented at our level and its benefits reach to the public at large.”
Sub-divisional I&PRO-cum-Assistant PIO Padampur Sri Sarat Chandra Sethi:
Following the talk by BDO Padampur, the SIPRO-cum-APIO Padampur gave a brief talk in which he added some observations of his own. His deliberation was as follows:
“The series of Block-level Workshops across the Padampur Sub-division including the present one have been held with the prime objective of making the people aware about RTI Act and how to use it. Some important points already discussed by the two resource persons need to be emphasized for the benefit of all.
“Firstly, it ought to be remembered that while the normal kind of information shall be provided in 30 days, certain information which relates to one’s life and liberty can be disclosed in 48 hours. Secondly, it has been clearly told that the RTI Act itself has exempted explicitly some categories of information from disclosure to the public on different sensitive grounds. But it ought to be remembered that the questions of absurd nature can’t be answered too. For instance, if one asks, how many monkeys or how many trees are there in Padampur Sub-division, such questions can’t be responded to and shall therefore be rejected”.
Addition by BDO Padmpur:
“It is worth recalling what the VAS (Veterinary Assistant Surgeon) Paikmal had asked during the question-answer session in the Block-level Workshop held at Paikmal on 18th Nov. His question was- if a person wants to inspect all the catalogues and registers maintained in his office, shall it be possible on his part to allow such inspection to be conducted in a given time-frame? It is a legitimate question, though the Act nowhere says that one can’t ask for inspection of all the records available with a public authority”.
Question-Answer Session
Q-1 by Sri Birabhadra Sahu Member Bargarh Zilla Parishad:
Now we see that a book titled “Why the Orissa RTI Rules 2005 are absurd and illegitimate, even after the amendment of 29 May 2006?” has been circulated to each participant. Why such book was circulated and who allowed its circulation?
A-1 by Sub-divisional I&PRO-cum-Assistant PIO Padampur
Neither we (the administration) have published it nor circulated it. It has been published and circulated by some NGOs. Whatever is written in that book is not fully true and nor we subscribe to its views.
Q-2 by Sri Santosh Kumar Behera-
The time-limit of 120 days that was provided under the Act has elapsed since long, but as we find, the offices of local Police Station and WOLP (Watershed) have not put 17 categories of suo motu information yet on display for the information of the public. Why?
A-2 by Sub-divisional I&PRO-cum-Assistant PIO Padampur
If they have not done so, you may appeal first before the 1st appellate authority of respective offices, otherwise you may also send your direct complaint to Suchana Commission?
Q-3 by Sri Birabhadra Sahu Member Bargarh Zilla Parishad:
The book that has been circulated is a negatively biased book. Why at all its circulation was permitted?
A-3 by SRO-cum-PIO Padampur:
This book is full of negative ideas. Though the book calls Orissa RTI Rules-2005 absurd and illegitimate, I shall say that the book itself is an illegitimate material. Everything written in the book is false and illegitimate. For instance, the advisor to the publication of this book is mentioned as Chitta Behera, where as his real name is Chitta Ranjan Behera. And thus, the name of the Advisor is itself illegal. (At this point, Sri Behera who was sitting on the front row of the audiences requested the speaker to give another example of how the book contains false and illegitimate contents.)
Then the SRO-cum-PIO continued, “As per my knowledge of English, the law says that a Government may or may not exempt the BPL families from all the 3 kinds of fees, but they in this book claim that the law exempts the BPL families from all the fees”. Is it not illegal to say so?
Addition by Sub-divisional I&PRO-cum-Assistant PIO Padampur:
In fact a meeting was held at Sub-Collector’s level, where he had permitted the NGOs to take part in organizing of the Block-level Workshops to be held in Padampur Sub-division and where he had also permitted the circulation of this book.
Addition by BDO Padampur- Sri Behera may be requested to speak on the contents of the book.
Q-4: by Sri Harihar Sahu-
How the RTI Act can operate in a people-friendly manner?
A-4 by SRO-PIO Padampur:
In the first phase, we received training from Soochana Commission at Bhubaneswar to discuss the provisions of the Act through the Block level RTI Workshops being currently held. There it was decided that the Blocklevel Workshops were to be conducted under the joint aegis of Government agencies and NGOs. The Commission wants that the same kind of exercise shall be held at each GP level in the next phase. Further it ought to be remembered that even certain provisions of a very old statute like IPC which was framed and introduced long back in 1860, remain yet un-implemented. How should we think that the RTI Act which is just a year old should have been fully implemented by now?
Explanation by Sri Chitta Behera, Advisor to Orissa RTI Campaign:
Sri Behera then rose to speak on the questions raised about his name and about the book. He said as follows:
“First of all, I thank BDO Padampur who wanted me to clarify the question raised about the book. Before I deal with that I like to clarify the first question raised by SRO Padampur. It is true that my certificate name is Chitta Ranjan Behera. But since long I have been using a briefer name ‘Chitta Behera’ just for the sake of convenience. Several Bank Accounts have been opened by me in the past using this current name in various nationalized Banks, and there have been no difficulties for them in accepting this name so far. For the first time I hear somebody call my name illegal. Any way, I shall not waste away your time after this irrelevant issue.
“Now let us come to the prime question raised in this house about the title of the book. That the Orissa RTI Rules 2005 is absurd and illegitimate vis-à-vis RTI Act is not only the opinion of mine or that of some NGOs of Orissa, but also the opinion of stalwart pioneers of RTI movement at national level including Mrs. Aruna Roy of MKSS Rajasthan about whom the ZP Chairman Sri Bariha had spoken a lot in previous workshops and may speak also in today’s workshop in due course. As a matter of fact, Mrs.Roy had in course of her visit to Orissa in December 05 last had met the CM Orissa and presented a Memorandum to him requesting a drastic overhaul of Orissa RTI Rules which were ‘ultra vires’ the parent Act. Our book contains a verbatim reproduction of the said Memorandum at page 25, which everyone interested can go through.
“Now coming to the next relevant question- which kinds of fees are exempted for BPL persons under the RTI Act, I request Sri Fakir Charan Rout Coordinator of SMPU Network Padampur, a collaborating agency for this Workshop and also the circulator of this book to read out the Proviso to Section 7(5) of RTI Act 2005. As requested, Sri Rout read out the Oriya translation of the said proviso from our book, the English version of which as occurring in the parent Act stands as follows,
“What does it mean? It means that none of the 3 kinds of fees [such as application fee (6-1), cost of information fee (7-1) and fee for electronic medium (7-5) shall be charged from those persons, who might be identified by an appropriate Government to be living below poverty line.
“Not only that. Even the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) given on the website of Orissa Soochana Commission gives an identical explanation of the said proviso. Let’s quote it verbatim-
“15. What is the fee?
1. Application fees to be prescribed which must be reasonable;
2. If further fees are required, then the same must be intimated in writing with calculation details of how the figure was arrived at;
3. Applicant can seek review of the decision on fees charged by the PIO by applying to the appropriate appellate authority;
4. No fees will be charged from people living below poverty line;
5. Applicant must be provided information free of cost if the PIO fails to comply
with the prescribed time limit.”
“Further if somebody has doubt regarding the authenticity of Oriya translation of the Act done by us, he/she is requested to go through the authoritative Oriya version of the Act as published in Extra-ordinary Gazette of India dated 23rd June 2006, which is now available with me after getting it downloaded from Orissa Commission’s website (http://orissasoochanacommission.nic.in). There the translation of the Proviso to Section 7(5) stands as follows:
“Thus as matters stand now, it is true that Orissa Rules has exempted application fees for BPL persons, but neither anywhere in the Act nor anywhere in Orissa Rules is explicitly mentioned that the other two fees under Section 7(5) i.e. fee towards the cost of information and fee towards the cost of the electronic medium shall ever be charged from BPL persons.
“Now I wish to throw a challenge to all. If any body in the house can show either from the Act or from Orissa Rules that these two fees shall be collected from the BPL persons, then I bet, I shall pay one crore rupees to him/her.”
In response to Sri Behera’s challenge, Sri Birabhadra Sahu, Member ZP read out the following portion from Rule 4(1) of Orissa RTI Rules 2005 “Provided that application fee shall not be payable in
case of a person whose name appears in the latest list of persons below poverty line for which he has toproduce BPL Card”.
In reply Sri Behera continued, “What is written there says that BPL persons shall not have to pay application fees, but you should show me, where is it categorically mentioned that the BPL persons have to pay other two fees?.”
Then the ZP Member Sri Sahu remarked at Sri Behera, ‘Now you seem to be raising a different question from the one you raised earlier.’
In reply Sri Behera said, “My original question was and still is- where is it categorically mentioned either under the RTI Act or under the Orissa RTI Rules that the other two fees shall be collected from the BPL persons. Perhaps, you have misconstrued my question itself.”
Then SRO Sri Sarangi read out the schedule on fees appended to Orissa RTI Rules 2005 in a bid to find out if it contained any reference to fees applicable to BPL families. But it didn’t carry any such reference.
Then Sri Behera continued, “Though neither the Act nor the Orissa Rules anywhere mentions the application of other two fees to BPL persons, it is unfortunate that the resource persons who are present here were trained by the personnel from Suchana Commission and State Government and that too through oral communication only, not backed by any authoritative reading material, to brainwash the public mind to accept the position that the BPL persons were exempted only from application fee, but they have to pay the other two fees as per the law.”
At this point, Sri Behera tried to show to SRO Sri P.K.Sarangi a compilation of reading materials downloaded from Orissa Soochana Commission’s website, the cover page of which was the exact reproduction of the front page of Commission’s website. But Sri Sarangi immediately got angry at that and retorted, “Don’t show it to me. You are the person who has written all this.” Then Sri Behera uttered, of course, a bit loudly, “This book consists of materials from Commission’s website, and you are telling the lie that this is mine.” This remark of Sri Behera further angered the SRO, who instantly stood up to rebuff Sri Behera. But Sri Fakir Charan Rout Coordinator of SMPU Network Padampur intervened at this point to ensure that Sri Behera comes back to his seat and the tension created in the house is pacified.
Then Sri Behera calmly went to show the relevant portions from the compilation on Commission’s website to BDO Padampur, but the latter didn’t like to look at it. Then he placed the compilation in front of Chairman Zilla Parishad Sri Bariha who was then addressing the house. After his talk was over, Sri Bariha cast a quick glance over the portions of the book marked by Sri Behera, especially relating to fees for BPL families. But when Sri Behera asked him about his observation on the same, he preferred to remain silent and non-committal.
Talk by Sri M.R.Singh Bariha, Chairman, Bargarh Zilla Parishad:
Sri Bariha said that the RTI Act is applicable for the whole of India except the State of J&K, which has of course enacted an RTI law of its own in 2004. The RTI Act is not an ordinary law; following its enactment right to information is now a fundamental right of every Indian citizen. If any official would give false information, he or she can be now penalized under RTI Act.
As regards the historical background to the RTI law, Sri Bariha observed that the felt need for such a law gained ground after Rajiv Gandhi’s remark that there was huge pilferage of the money sanctioned from Delhi on its way down to Panchayats. Rajiv Gandhi was also the real spirit behind the eventual ushering in of a glorious era of Panchayati Raj commencing from the enactment of 73rd Constitution Amendment Bill in 1991. Earlier to that, V.P.Singh’s NF Government had also talked about the need for a law like Right to Information Act with a view to bring about transparency in the affairs of administration at every level. In the mid-90s we found that Smt.Aruna Roy, an erstwhile IAS Officer who had left her job in the Government to join the NGO sector launched a campaign in the State of Rajasthan for right to information of the rural poor. At that time, the muster roll of wage-labourers was also considered to be an official secret. Thanks to her persistent campaign, the Governments at Centre and in States started thinking about the need for enactment of an RTI law. While quite some States had introduced RTI Act at their level, the UF Government at the Centre introduced Freedom of Information Bill in the Parliament in 2000, which was passed eventually in 2002. Since the FOI Act 2002 suffered some basic lacunae, the UPA Government thought of replacing it by a more effective Act. And thus was enacted what we now know as Right to Information Act 2005. The most important characteristic of the RTI Act 2005 is its clear-cut direction to the public authorities to regard the common people as the real sovereign masters of the country. Among other things, the RTI Act has enjoined upon each public authority to make suitable sitting arrangements for the members of public visiting an office to seek some information or the other under the Act.
Vote of thanks by SI&PRO-cum-APIO, Padampur
Sri Sarat Ch.Sethi rose to offer a vote of thanks to all for making the Workshop a success. He however first of all requested Sri Chitta Behera to speak in a few words his experience on the series of Block-level Workshops on RTI Act held across the Padampur Sub-division in course of about last month, since Sri Behera attended each of them. But due to time-constraint, Sri Behera abstained from making a speech any further, but he stood up and expressed his great satisfaction at the overall success of the Workshops so held. Then the APIO thanked SMPU Network Padampur and its Coordinator Sri Fakir Charan Rout for having extended heart-felt cooperation to the sib-divisional administration in the matter of successful holding of Block level Workshops covering 6 Blocks. Sri Sethi also extended his cordial thanks to the PRI leaders, resource persons, officials, NGOs and media persons, whose whole-hearted participation has rendered all the Block level workshops including the present one into a remarkable success.
Then the Workshop came to close and all were invited to join in the mid-day lunch that was already ready to be served.
Minutes prepared by:
Fakir Charan Rout
Network Coordinator, SMPU
Padampur