ACADEMY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
(Approved by AICTE, Govt. of India, New Delhi)
ABA House, S1/25, Industrial Estate, Balasore-756001 (Orissa)
PH: (06782) 269687, 264058, 261457, FAX: (06782) 269687,
Email: aba_academy@yahoomail.com, Website: www.abaindia.com
PRESS RELEASE:
Workshop on Right to Information Act 2005
Duty of Public Authorities and Right of Citizens
At Academy of Business Administration, Industrial Estate, Balasore
28th of January 2006
The Workshop on RTI Act 2005 with focus on duties of public authorities and rights of citizens under the Section 4 of the Act was held in the ABA Conference Hall, Balasore under the aegis of Academy of Business Administration. It was attended by people from cross sections of public such as academia, Govt officials, media persons, social activists and industry leaders. Presided over by Sri J.K.More Executive Director of ABA, it was addressed among others by such eminent persons as Prof. Sukadev Nannda, VC F.M.University, Prof.M.K.Choudhury Principal of ABA, Sri Ravindra Kumar Jena Vice President Balasore Alloys, Sri H.K.Das MD Oriplast, Sri Sudha Sindhu Panda Chairman ABA and Sri G.C. Dash Director Proof and Experimental Establishment. Sri Duryodhan Giri, ADM Balasore did also attend the Workshop.
The Workshop started with a documentary on local RTI scenario, shown by Sri Sambit Patnaik, a Faculty Member on behalf of the MSW students. It was followed by exhibition of another documentary on campaign for RTI at Delhi.
Joining in as the Chief Resource Person Prof. Radha Mohan State Information Commissioner observed that the Commission has penal powers of both pecuniary fine and disciplinary action against the delinquent officials for their undue denial of information to the citizens under the Act. Responding to the questions raised by a participant Sri Aniruddha Prasad Das that the Orissa RTI Rules were not at all congenial to the common citizens, Prof. Radha Mohan commented that the Commission maintained an open mind on the issue of Rules and would welcome any further progressive change in it in conformity with the mother Act. The Commissioner further observed that the Information Commission as required by the parent Act shall act always independently and autonomously for implementation of the Act, never yielding to pressures from above.
The other Resource Person on the occasion was Sri Pradip Kumar Pradhan, Convener Orissa Right to Food Campaign who in his brief but succinct talk laid bare some dangerous, anti-people and illegitimate provisions implicit in the Orissa RTI Rules and expressed his firm view that the Orissa Rules which is a clandestine handiwork of a few bureaucrats of the State needs to be abolished lock, stock and barrel if we want the RTI Act 2005 to be operationalised in letter and spirit in our State. Pending the rectification of the current defect-ridden Orissa Rules, Sri Pradhan called upon the participants to make use of Section 4 of the Act to access official information by way of instant inspection, for which no application or fee would be required. And if an Officer doesn’t allow a desirous person to exercise his right to inspection, then the person concerned can make a direct complaint under Section 18 of RTI Act before the Orissa Suchana Commission, for which no fee shall also be required. Sri Pradhan requested all to visit the website www.orissarti.com to get conversant with the ideas and activities of the ongoing Campaign against Orissa RTI Rules.
The Programme Coordinator of the Workshop Sri Lalit Kumar Mishra, a Member of ABA Faculty in course of his introductory talk, narrated his bitter experience of interaction with the officials and observed that most of them either feigned ignorance of the RTI law or evaded the real job of giving the information asked for on this or that flimsy ground. He called upon the youths to pursue the public authorities for getting the necessary information and if the latter non-cooperate, then to sue them before the State Information Commission.
Very lively and relevant questions were raised by the participants namely Sri Ganeshwar Rout, Biswajit Daspatnaik, Daridra Bhanjan Sahoo, Kishore Jena and others.
Vote of thanks was offered by Smt.Debajani Ghosh, a Member of ABA Faculty.
A unanimous resolution was passed for endorsal to the Chief Minister Orissa with intimation to all concerned authorities for revising the anti-people Orissa RTI Rules and replacing it with appropriate Rules in line with the provisions of the mother Act. The Resolution called for drastic reduction of the fees, simplification of the application procedure, citizen-friendly appeal rules, exemption of BPL families from all kinds of fees, provision for variety of modes of payment, no application fee for information under Section 4, no fee for 1st or 2nd appeals, a time-limit for disposal of 2nd appeal, and above all consultation with civil society groups before finalizing the alternative State RTI Rules.
Report by
Sri Bibhuti Bhushan Sahu,
PRO, ABA, Balasore, dated 28th Jan. 2006