Centre asks states to do more on sharing public information

The Centre today asked the states to do more in promoting RTI and making suo motu disclosures related to governance on public domain, saying they have not not been "up to the mark" in sharing information.
"The Centre is doing a lot to promote RTI Act. But what the state governments are doing is not up to the mark. They need to work more on it. They need to take an active role in promoting RTI and putting information in the public domain," said V Narayanasamy, Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
Information related to Public Private Partnerships (PPP), transfer orders of officers and employees, objections or paras by the Comptroller and Auditor General and Public Accounts Committee, among others, need to be put in the public domain, he said.

"We want a common man living in rural areas to be able to file an RTI application. He should be made aware of it. This is the purpose of our government. We want to project ourselves as an open government," Narayanasamy said.
The minister also sought suggestions from the people on promoting the Right to Information(RTI) Act and making it more user-friendly.
"We need the support of the people and civil society... We are open to suggestions which would make the Act more useful. We will issue guidelines or notifications immediately based on important suggestions," he said.

Narayanasamy was speaking at the inauguration of a day- long national workshop on RTI Act organised here by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), the nodal department for the implementation of the transparency law.

DoPT had last April issued directions for all central government ministries to comply with the compulsory obligation of suo motu disclosures mentioned under Section 4 of RTI Act, 2005.
Each ministry or public authority was asked to ensure that the guidelines for suo motu disclosures were fully operationalised within a period of six months from the date of the issuance of the directive, or April 15, 2013.