Dassera, the festival widely celebrated as transition to a brighter tomorrow, brings with a new wave of empowerment for the common people of Orissa, as the government of Orissa implemented the Right to Information Act (RTI) in the state from 12th of Oct 2005, on the day of Dassera. The government also constituted Orissa State Information Commission (OSIC) with two members. The government appointed Mr D N Padhi , a senior IAS Officer as the Chief Information Officer (CIC) while Economist and Environmentalist, Professor Radhamohan as Information Commissioner.
This Right to Information Act (RTI) will enable the citizen of Orissa to demand to know the details of every action from the officials, who enjoys the high and mighty places in the government. Now the sahibs (Govt official) will be obliged by law to offer themselves to public scrutiny and accountability. However it has not at all without a cost. The person who seeks any information from the government has to pay certain sum of money.
A citizen desirous of any information may apply for information in form “A” to the Public Information Officer, paying Rs 20 in shape of Treasury Challan or cash. Similarly a sum of Rs 15 is to be charged per hour or any fraction thereof for the inspection of any documents. The cost of each page of photocopy has been fixed at Rs 5, for computer print outs it is Rs 10 per page and for floppies or CDs it will cost Rs 100 per piece.
The request for information can be rejected by the Public Information Officer. The applicants can go for appeal against the decision of the PIO before the appellate authority. A person aggrieved by the decision of the appellate authority can go for second appeal (section 19) before the Information Commission, for this
the applicant will have to pay court fee stamp of Rs 40 for the first appeal and court fee stamp of Rs 50 for the second.
The BPL card holders have however got the rescue root as the application fee shall not be payable in case of a person whose name appears in the latest list of persons below poverty line. Only they have to show their BPL card which will benefit nearly 47% as in (1999-2000) of Orissa population.
To ensure that the information sought is served as quick as possible, the Act makes it obligatory for the Public Information Officer (PIO) to provide the information requested for, not beyond 30 days as permissible under the act. The law (section 20) also promises prompt accountability and transparency as it provides for hefty fines and disciplinary action against erring officials.
High cost Of Information In a Poor State
The cost of access to information in Orissa in comparison to other high income states is so high that it may deter common people to request for information, for example in the state like Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu there is no such application fee at all. In Maharastra and Rajasthan it costs very nominal price of Rs 10 and Rs 5 respectively, where as it is well high at Rs 20 in relatively a poor state like Orissa, where most of people either trapped in poverty or lives just above the poverty line. Likewise the cost of a photo copy is Rs 5 in Orissa but in more prosperous states (comparison to Orissa) like Rajasthan charges only Rs 2 per page photocopy and Maharastra charges only Rs 0.50 per page photo copy. For inspection of records in Tamil Nadu no fee for first hour, but the poor people of have to pay Rs 15 for an hour inspection, likewise for information provided in diskette or floppy rupees 50 has to be paid by the people of Tamil Nadu but their poor counterparts in Orissa have to pay the double amount Rs (100) for the information in CD or in floppy. So many question arises like, could the common people able to pay the prescribe sum to avail the information they wants? To enable common people to access right to information fee should be stand at lower level or no fees at all, while higher fees may be charged for commercial requests, then only this act could serve the people of Orissa in real terms. There is also a need to provide relevant information that people can use, merely providing access to government information that no one can understand will not be useful for anyone.
One of the leading NGOs in the state has pointed out that the state government has also fixed exorbitant rates. For example, it has fixed the rate of application fee at Rs 20 as against the Rs 10 prescribed by the Central government.
Similarly, application fees for the first appeal and the second appeal have been fixed at Rs 40 and Rs 50, respectively, while the Right to Information Act has not provided any application fee at all for making the first and even the second appeal. Besides, a sum of Rs 15 is to be charged for each hour or a fraction there of for the inspection of documents. But the original Act does not provide for an inspection fee, as inspection of a document does not involve any cost. Similarly the Rule 10 provided for collecting compensation from the applicant for the damage caused to the public property by a public information officer in the course of giving an information in the form of samples of materials. This provision is against the spirit of the Right to Information Act says Dayanidhi Das, a veteran journalist who used to work with a leading Oriya daily.
Need Of Training And Awareness
In Orissa around 36% (2001 census) of the population are illiterate and less educated people (Up to class 10th) are quite high in the state. The case is worst in the less developed part like north-west and south–west where both the illiteracy rate and percentage of less educated people is much higher than average, it is highly necessary to build skill in writing applications for information as specifically and clearly as possible so that it does not get rejected.
Many applications could be made for information in different forms. For example a citizen can ask for a) certified copies of documents, b) information in floppy/CD, c) information in the form of a video recording or a DVD, d) can request for inspection of works, documents etc in different format so it needs a training for filling up forms. Likewise training on the procedure of appeal, among the people is the pre-requisite, if it has to serve the people in more than one way.
Right to Information will not be effective until and unless people have knowledge of the law and are empowered to use the same, as the past experiences indicates that many welfare programmes of the states failed to yield desires fruits in the past only because of lack of people’s participation due to ignorance about the programmes undertaken for their upliftment. So the public awareness campaign about the value of peoples’ right to access government held information (Right to Information Act, 2005) and it’s application among the people has to be kicked off extensively as soon as possible in the state so that people could participate and seek the progress card of the utilisation of the developmental funds meant for them and could check the level of corruption in rural development programme, particularly in the North-west and South-west part of Orissa, where both the incident of poverty and corruption stands at higher level.
. NGOs have to play a pivotal role in raising public awareness through seminars, hoardings, Newspapers, Television and of course, not to forget the road shows in the remote areas where most of the people in Orissa live. The local media should be used as a channel of delivery. Peoples’ participation through successful awareness and slashing the high fee, this move (Right To Information) of the government could change the fortune of the common people through transparency in the Governance in Orissa.
M. Narasingh Rao
Author is a Journalist can be contacted
Email :
narasingh@gmail.com My Adress
M.Narasingh Rao
1st floor,Anusha Hospitals
Plot No 22,Kamala Nagar,Vanasthalipuram,
Hyderabad-70
Andhra Pradesh
Email:: 
URL::