The Right to Information Act, 2005

Improving transparency & accountability in the government through effective

implementation of the Right to Information Act

DOPT

(Department of Personnel and Training)

 Submitted To: Sh. Madan Mohan Maurya

(Under Secretary)

 Submitted By: Rahul Kumar Gupta

CLASS- B.A. LLB 2nd Year

LLOYD LAW COLLEGE, GREATER NOIDA

2017

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

S. NO. TOPICS PAGE NO.

1. INTRODUCTION 3-4
2. EXPERIENCE 5-6
3. THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY 7-9
4. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 10-11
5. METHODOLOGY 12-13
6. BRIEF ANALYSIS 14-18
7. CONCLUSION 19-24

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  INTRODUCTION

The Right to Information Act was passed in the year 2005. This law empowers Indian
citizens to seek any accessible information from a Public Authority and makes the
Government and its functionaries more accountable and responsible.

The Commencement of the RTI regime 12 years ago marked the don of the new era.
Different stakeholders have played a crucial role in carrying forward the regime and
have helped the government in inculcating a culture of transparency and
accountability in the working of public authorities. It has been observed that
information seekers face problems in implementing the provision of the act. Under
this programme initiated by the Department of Personnel and Training the researchers
were attached to the five different ministries/departments they namely are:-

 Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

 Ministry of Home Affairs.
 Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
 Ministry of Women’s & Child Development.
 Department of Personnel & Training.

There is a broad consensus that the implementation of the Act needs to be improved
to achieve the objectives. At the same time information seekers to have to learn how
to use the Act more effectively. This study has been undertaken to identify the
problems plaguing the system and suggest remedial measures so as to enable better
access of information and uphold the sprit of the act.

The basic objective of the act was to increase the transparency and increase the
accountability of the government offices. Notwithstanding the improvement
requirements the following achievements are undisputable:
 The basic tenets of the Act have been implemented and the institutional mechanism is
in place and is in use by citizens.

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  Civil society organizations and the media have started using the Act for bringing in
transparency and objectivity.
 Centre and State Government departments have initiated the training of key
functionaries to assume the responsibilities of PIOs and FAAs.
 Government employees/Public Authorities are aware of the basic elements of the Act.
 Various State Government have taken up initiatives, which go beyond the stipulations
of the Act, and further the spirit of the Act.

It is acknowledged by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the nodal Department

that some changes needs to be brought in. It recognizes that there are various constraints
involved in achieving the objective of the act on the part of both the information seekers and
information providers.

Under this programme that has been undertaken the interns were attached to the ministry of
department of personnel and training wherein they were required to interact with the officers
involve in the implementation of the RTI regime and consolidate and documents its
experience in the implementation of RTI, its successes, its constrains in implementation,
identify areas which needs more attention, address the gap areas and suggest what more had
to be done to help achieve the objective of the act.

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  EXPERIENCE

The Internship started on 5th June 2017, with ministry of DOPT and the task was to
analysis RTI applications at hand, and submit analysis of the study to the concerned
department which will play crucial role in improving the working of the act as a
whole and to help improve efficiency and effectiveness.

The first day started with a briefing about the task, and the way the task has to
fulfilled. RTI applications has to be read, analysed and specifics about each individual
application had to be filled in and tabulated in a questionnaire. Each such application
had to be scrutinised separately and read individually to fill up the table, which was
comprehensive enough to include all the aspects and parts of each application. Each
application, once dealt with completely, is kept in a separate file with all the related
papers.

It was necessary for us to read the applications more than once to fully understand the
file. When the interns started their research work he/she received some landmark RTI
applications to help get a view about how applications are written and received, and
how they are replied to and under what rules and regulations such replies and
information are given.

The first day, was a revealing experience, and the amount of knowledge and exposure
which the interns gained, not in terms of filing of applications, but as a whole, in
terms of gaining a perspective on the working of the government, has an enormous
value and it is provided an insight of how the government is supposed to function and
to gather the views and opinion of the officials who work on the other end of the line.

The interns realised that the public view and opinion on the government, its
functioning and its components and machinery were fairly skewed and were based
more on the general public anger against corruption and the relative easiness in
labelling the whole of the government and its officials as ‘inefficient’ or ‘corrupt’.
With whatever little interaction the researcher has had with various government
officials throughout the government.

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 He realised that only a small percentage of such officials are dishonest, but to label
the whole of the machinery as being corrupt. As has been tabulated in the file, the
researcher saw that most RTI applications were rather unnecessary and was either
about information with respect to classified or secret documents, or for providing
unnecessary roadblocks to government officials of various departments in their own
departments with respect to promotions, salaries etc.

Also, such RTIs prove to be an unavoidable nuisance for the CPIOs who receive
them. The first week was, in a nutshell, one of the most informative, as the interns
were new in the internship and were gaining a vast amount of knowledge, experience
and exposure from the files and applications they were reviewing. The CPIOs and
other officials who provided the interns with valuable inputs and shared their personal
experiences which they had acquired with years of experience in RTI.

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  PUBLIC AUTHORITY

The department which the interns were allotted was the Department of Personnel and
Training, under the Ministry of Personnel, Pensions and Public Grievances and
Central Public Information Officer was the rank of an Under Secretary to Government
of India.

The Ministry of Personnel, Pensions and Public Grievances authority aims to develop
an enabling environment for the development and management of Human Resources
of the Government for efficient, effective, accountable, responsive and transparent
governance. Also, it aims to recruit, place, train and compensate officials of the
Government of India, making it one of the most important ministries in the
government.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) is under the charge of Secretary
(Personnel) comprises of six wings:-

A. Establishment Officer,
B. Services and Vigilance,
C. Establishment,
D. Administrative Tribunal and Administration,
E. Training,
F. Central Services.

Each of this wing is headed by an officer of the rank of Joint Secretary or an

Additional Secretary. DOPT acts as the formulator of policies pertaining to
recruitment, regulation of service conditions, and deputation of personnel besides
advising all organisations of the Central Government on issues pertaining to personnel
management.

The Department is multi-faceted, and performs work in many different fields. It is

responsible for framing rules and regulations governing service conditions of
employees including:-

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 A. recruitment rules,
B. promotions and seniority,
C. flexible complementing scheme,
D. leave travel concession,
E. deputation,
F. child care leave etc.

Personnel are recruited for the central government by the Union Public Service
Commission through competitive examinations conducted by them for appointments
to higher civil servants. In order to achieve the objective of up liftment and welfare of
the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and persons
with Disabilities.

The Department is responsible for framing policies to provide reservation to these

groups in various central government services and for monitoring its implementation.
The department is also responsible for the recruitment in the AIS(All India Services)
and the UPSC (Union Public Services Commission) comes under this ministry even
though it is a statutory authority under the Constitution of India.

Also DOPT is the nodal Department to impart training to the government

functionaries. The training wing of the DOPT formulates policies and implements its
training programmes by identifying areas of training, designing training programmes,
development of trainers and training capabilities and administering policies in
training. Major training activities undertaken, as per the Annual Report published by
the ministry are:-

A. In-service training of IAS officers,

B. Mid-Career Training of IAS Officers,
C. Domestic Funding of Foreign training,
D. Post Graduate Programmes in Public Policy,
E. Training Support,
F. Intensive Training Programme,

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 G. Augmentation of the Capacity of training institutions,
H. Capacity Building for poverty reduction,
I. Distance and e- learning initiatives and,
J. e-governance initiatives.

The chapters throw light on the system of file management of the 5 to 10 CPIOs and
highlights the best and the not so good practices.

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  LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The study of the RTI Applications received in the two years. Out of many CPIOs in
the Department of Personnel & Training only the RTIs received by five to ten CPIOs
who were analysed.
The study has been restricted by the following factors:-

1. The intern has been limited to the Ministry of Departmental of Personnel &
Training.

2. Out of Many Chief Public Information Officer (CPIOs), RTI application

received by only 5 to 10 CPIOs which receives the maximum applications.
Thus the pool from which the sample has been chosen is restricted and thus
may not be representative of the situation in the entire department/ministry.

3. From each CPIO only 20 to 25 RTI files were picked up. Thus a sample of
only 200 RTIs were chosen from the lot of RTIs applications received by the
Department and therefore may not indicate the correct situation of the RTI
system.

4. An inadvertent bias crept into the selection process, as RTI records which
were incomplete were purposely left out, so as to achieve a more meaningful
analysis and result.

5. The ministry is more of a coordinating authority that deals with different

attached offices established by them. Most of the RTI applications were
transferred to these attached offices which are different public authorities
under sec. 6 (3)(a) of the RTI act , as a result of which analysis of the RTI
with regard to certain parameters such as Information is available in Public
Domain, Information sought under the purview of Suo Motu disclosure
became impossible.

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 6. Due to lack of in-depth knowledge of the work, policies and the functions of
the ministry, it was difficult to assess the quality of the responses given by
the CPIO’s.
7. The parameters adopted for analysis of the RTI mechanism and RTI records
may not cover all aspects related to the system and applications.

8. Though the interns were told that the various points of information (72 in
total) {including Template I & II} listed in the excel sheet to be filled up
which were prepared by officials of the RTI Cell. The interns felt that none
of the points actually required the interns to read the file, and all the points
could be filled up by a cursory glance at the pages, as the points were very
basic, and there is a need for a more comprehensive basis for such a
programme, if it is being conducted in the future.

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  METHODOLOGY

The interns were allotted the Department of Personnel and Training for the purpose of
the study of the RTI system and records. At the Ministry the interns worked under
five to ten CPIOs. These CPIOs were those who had received the maximum number
of RTI applications received in the calendar year 2017 and previous two years RTI’s
applications. The interns randomly selected twenty to twenty five applications from
each CPIO for the purpose of the study (however some records which were
incomplete were purposefully left out).

There were two hundred applications in total which were analysed for the purpose of
the research. Each intern worked on two hundred RTI applications each. The study
was an empirical study. The interns filled two templates provided by the Department
of Personnel and Training; one giving a general overview of the RTI mechanism in
the Department of DOPT such as no. Applications received, no. Of CPIO’s etc. in
(Template I). The other one was for the purpose of scrutinizing the RTI applications.

For the purpose of filling Template II the interns got the two hundred records
photocopied and then read them thoroughly. From time to time assistance was sought
from the concerned CPIO’s. For filling in certain parameters such as “Information
sought under the purview of Suo Motu disclosure” the ministry’s website was referred
to. On the basis of the observations records in the templates by the interns an analysis
was done. The observations have then been analysed with the help of graphs which
attempt to give a scientific explanation of the given data.

The analysis, besides interpretation of diagrams, includes identification of certain

patterns. After the results were discussed certain conclusions were drawn out. The
areas which need more attention in the implementation of RTI act were identified and
measures were suggested to address the gap and achieve the objectives of the Act.

As a part of the methodology, the interns followed a systematic procedure to fill up

the templates given as part of the internship, and the templates, report and analysis

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 were completed as per the rules and guidelines given by DOPT. The process of such
collection of information was as follows:

I. The interns were divided into different - different ministries to assess the
different kinds of RTI applications which came up on various issues, subjects
and areas. The interns were to read the applications and fill in the templates
given by DOPT.

II. Many officers from the concerned ministries met and were instructed to help
the interns reading and analysing the applications, and also help them in the
total completion of the project.

III. The interns were talk to those five to ten CPIO’s in the allotted ministry who
have more RTI applications and each CPIO was to provide minimum twenty
to twenty five selected RTI applications to provide a view of the general
working of the RTI.

IV. Thus, 200 applications had to be collected from concerned ministry, read,
analysed and recorded, as per the points tabulation given of DOPT, and such
recorded points were then saved onto the soft copy, the templates were filled
in, and photocopies of all relevant files were made.

V. The interns are required to find out what are the major queries / complaints on
policy initiative that the citizens are desiring to address.

VI. The overall observations were noted, analysed and included in the final report
to be submitted at the end of the internship.

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  BRIEF ANALYSIS

The analysis to be given is solely on the basis of the information collected through the
200 RTI applications which were analysed by the intern working in the DOPT. The
analysis has been as eye-opening as the whole experience of RTI as a whole, because
it has shown some facts which would otherwise have been hidden behind the veil of
papers and files. A point by point analysis has been done by the intern below:-

 BACKGROUND OF APPLICANT:- In most cases, the applicant is

from an urban area, and only very rarely do applications originate from
villages and areas other than towns and cities. Most applications originate
in the metros and there is scope for much greater percolation of the RTI
Act and its benefits in rural areas.

RURAL – 22% URBAN – 78%

 SEX OF THE APPLICANT:- In most cases had been filed by males, and
only very rarely were recipient’s females, and whenever they were, they
turned out to be researchers or reporters, and no regular concerned citizen
or RTI Activist was known to be a woman.

MALES-87% FEMALES- 13%

 Whether Government Employee:- Most applications received in the 5

departments seen were private applications, and the applications were neither
from government employees, and even if some were, there was no way to
check as occupation is not mentioned on the RTI form.

YES- 11.5 % NO- 88.5%

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  WHETHER APPLICANT FILED MORE THAN ONE APPLICATION:-
To see or check this fact, one has to go through all RTI applications available,
which is much outside the purview of the internship, and hence it was not very
simple filling up this part, as information was never available concerning
private activists.

 APPLICATION DATE:- Though there was nothing specifically wrong in

this regard, interns noticed in many applications that the date of posting of
letter and the date of receiving were far apart, sometimes even a month, and as
the period of 30 days starts at receiving, one felt that discretion was possible in
receiving the application at a later date.

 LANGUAGE AND LEGIBILITY OF APPLICATION:- As the central

government recognises Hindi and English, no applications were seen by the
interns in languages other than Hindi or English. Also, it is interesting to note
that well above 80% applications were in English and some applicants used
Hindi as the medium. All applications were legible and most of them were
printed.

ENGLISH- 82% HINDI- 18%

 AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION IN PUBLIC DOMAIN:- The

interns found that most of the applications filed for information under the RTI
act were not available in the public domain and most of the applications did
not pertained to Suo Motu disclosure.

YES- 14% NO- 86%

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  PAGES IN APPLICATION:- Most applications were 5 to 10 pages long but
there were many applicants who felt the need to either ask too many questions,
or to attach material along with the application, like newspaper articles etc.
and therefore, we see that awareness about nature and number of questions
needs to be spread.

 FEE PAYMENT:- The interns observed that most of the payments are done
through IPO, as most applications come through post, and also that the rest are
done through cash, and the other mediums are rarely used. Also, such fee of
Rs. 10 is generally correct and additional fee is rarely sought by the CPIO’s.

Mode of Payment

CASH- 18% DRAFT- 5%

CHEQUE- 3% IPO- 74%

 BPL/APL:- By the prior experience of the CPIOs we learnt that they rarely
used to get ‘genuine’ applications from BPLs, and it is mostly just
economically well off people who procured CDs and extensive documents free
of cost in the name of a BPL candidate. Also, such BPLs are exploited for
such uses.

YES- 92% NO- 8%

 QUESTIONS ASKED:- The number of questions asked vary from one to

sometimes more than 10, but normally, an application contains anywhere
between 1 to 5 questions, and such questions are generally on the same topic.
Such questions are over within 200 words.

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  NATURE OF APPLICATION:- The application’s nature depends on the
department, and in some department, all RTIs are based on policy matters,
while in others, most are on personnel and this depends on various
departments. Also, most applications relate to information and only rarely do
relate to grievances. Such information is, in almost all cases not based on life
and liberty, but some frivolous applications on life and liberty are received
which are refused by the RTI Cell and CPIO. Also, this information required
is new, and information about past events is rarely asked for.

Information Related To

Information- 92.5% Clarification- 4%

Grievance- 3.5%

 FORM IN WHICH INFORMATION SOUGHT:- The information sought

by applicants is, in almost all cases sought in the form of certified
photocopies. Though we have observed that in many cases, additional fee was
not sought from the applicant, and the relevant photocopies were still duly
given. Such information is, in almost all cases sought through Ordinary Post,
and is generally linked to a new major policy decision of the government.

 HANDLING OF APPLICATION:- The application given is sometimes

addressed to the wrong authority, and has to be transferred to the concerned
authority within 5 days, and this target is generally met by the CPIOs of
various ministries. Also, such information is given within the stipulated 30
days, as a fine is imposed upon CPIOs if it crosses the stipulated 30 days. In
many cases, some questions are addressed to a different authority, and hence
assistance from other authorities has to be taken, but it was observed that only
a fraction of total applications comes for the inspection which the ministries
offer. Also, often no reasons are cited for holding back information, and the
‘reason’ is that the CPIO holds no such information.

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  FIRST APPEAL:- It was observed in the first appeal system that only about
20 to 25% applicants apply for first appeal, one CPIO told the intern to
understand the first appeal cases first, and handpicked first appeal cases were
given. Also, within first appeal cases, interns observed that most of the appeals
were filed due to non-availability of the information. Interns also observed that
the FAA is the immediate senior of the CPIO in any case, and both interact on
a day to day basis, and hence all first appeals are rejected, and sometimes
small directions are given to the CPIO showing biased nature of the appellate
authority.

Yes- 27% No- 73%

 Second Appeal:- The interns observe that a very small number of cases reach
the second appeal authority, i.e. the CIC. Therefore, the second appeal is an
option which is not exercised as it is perhaps too cumbersome to do so.

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  CONCLUSION

The conclusion we draw from this study and the internship is that the RTI is one of
the most progressive legislation in the past couple of decades, and that, even though it
has been made in good faith and the government wants to help itself run in as
transparent manner as possible, the RTI has become more powerful. But the
bureaucrat of today is still stuck in 1995, and believes in holding his files close to his
chest and remains in the opaque system which was prevalent before the act, and this
mismatch can only be healed by time, and we are sure that it soon will be.

Also, there were many points about the internship programme and about the core
study where there is scope for improvement and the intern has humbly submitted his
claims, opinions, findings and research with DOPT. The whole of the interns
department was a cheerful lot, and worked in a very positive environment, though the
gaping hole of inefficiency is problematic for the government as a whole. Some of the
findings are listed below experienced by the interns during their two months long
internship with DOPT:-

(A) PROBLEMS FACED DURING INTERNSHIP:-

The interns have, in the interest of the internship and for their personal development
tried to be as true in providing and reproducing information as possible. The officials
entrusted with the duty of providing the relevant files and materials were helpful but
there were many serious handicaps faced by the intern during their month long
internship, which were of many types, theoretical, practical, social, etc. The interns
has listed the various problems faced, in writing the report, and otherwise in the whole
process:-

 OFFICIALS ON DUTY:- Many officer from various division/sections on

duty were found to be uninterested and unsupportive of the project, and felt it
was tending to be an additional burden on them and added to their workload.
Therefore, officers of some divisions/sections across ministries were
unsupportive to a large extent, and as such support is essential for students in

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 assessing documents which are unorganised, incomplete, complex or illegible
at most times. The interns were told that all the concerned CPIOs were already
informed of the internship, but unfortunately it seems that it went unheard in
many departments.

 STATUS OF APPLICATIONS:- The RTI application and redressal system

seems quite interesting as one gets the hang of things, but it was noticed in
some departments, that RTI applications were relatively disorganised, pages
were not in chronological order, some pages were missing, and many
applications were illegible. But as the intern was in the RTI’s nodal ministry,
the problem was relatively subdued, and was more pronounced in other
ministries.

 LACK OF RESOURCES:- A major hassle which interns across ministries

faced was that the resources available with each ministry or department were
either not made available to the interns or were just not there. Minor
items(which were of course to be returned) like paper, pen, file covers, folders
and pencils were not handed over on many occasions though instructions were
issued for the same.

 PHOTOCOPY:- The point has to be highlighted and discussed separately

owing to the sheer severity of the situation. The OM Sheet which appoints the
interns for this internship has specifically stated that photocopies of the RTI
Applications made have to be handed over along with the report to ensure that
there is no discrepancy in tabulation and no fraudulent tactics have been
employed. But the problem interns faced was that the concerned
CPIO/Official was reluctant to let the intern take the RTI file for
photocopying, and also that the photocopy machine was granted for the
purpose of photocopying the files only after heated debate, discussion and
argument.

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 (B) MANAGEMENT OF RECORDS:-

 BEST PRACTISES:-

 The RTI applications were maintained in a separate file by the AVD

department. Thus all information associated with the RTI such as appeals,
resubmission etc. were found in one place and is not scattered.

 The RTI applications are arranged in chronological order, thus increasing

the ease of retrieval in case a certain application needs to be sourced in all
divisions.

 The AVD cell maintains an electronic record of every RTI received by the
CPIO, which contains details regarding the name of the applicant, date of
application, date of receipt, status of the RTI (whether pending or not), file
number etc.

 PRACTICES THAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT:-

 In the other divisions of the DOPT department, all the applications for the
year 2005 till date have been stacked up in one folder, making the
retrieval of a particular RTI almost impossible.

 In the some divisions, the documents pertaining to a RTI application are

arranged haphazardly, leading to confusion. All documents of an RTI
should be arranged in a proper order.

The above two things are because of the lack of staff available with the
concerned CPIO.

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 (C) SUGGESTIONS:-

A. There is an urgent requirement for awareness to be spread with regard to the

Right to Information Act and its procedure. This has been inferred on the
basis of the fact that the population type that tends asking for information is
limited to a male, urban population and not- BPL. This is not a positive trend
since such a population comprises only a minority in India. There was only
few BPL applicant. This can be done through awareness programmes that can
be conducted by the government, especially in rural areas and amongst
woman-folk.

B. The application takes time in reaching the CPIO from the PUC cell, and the
time frame of 30 days is counted after the application reaches the CPIO so in
effect the reply to the informant reaches later than what has been provided for
in the Act. Thus, there is a need to clear the position of such confusion.

C. Many of the applications were forwarded to all the CPIOs from the PUC cell
because the PUC was not able to ascertain as to which CPIO the information
pertains to. Thus, there is a need for the officials of the PUC cell to be trained
and made better conversant of the functions and duties of each division. This
will also save time for photo-copying, stationery etc.

D. It has been seen that in many cases, the CPIOs provide the photocopies
without asking for the additional fees as required by the RTI act.

E. From the perusal of the website, it was observed that information was
uploaded on a periodical basis relating to projects, their costs and progress.
Annual reports also contained information in a particular manner but most of
the time the applicant desired information in his format.
In such cases, the information providers should reject the applications as they
are not required to interpret and compile the matter. Therefore, guidelines
relating to such aspects need to be reiterated on continuous basis and even the

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 applicants should be made aware of these provisions. These guidelines can be
put on each public Authority’s website.

F. Another area that requires awareness is with regard to the functions of the
various divisions under a public authority. Though the ministry of DOPT and
its constituent bodies have done a commendable job by putting up all the
information regarding their functions on the website in a brief and concise
manner, but people do not seem to be aware of the functions of each division
and Ministry, and thus write applications to the wrong Public Authority. Such
ignorance has been the main cause for the large number of applications that
have been transferred from one public authority to another.
This trend of transferring applications has slowed down the process of
providing the information to the applicants and has also unnecessarily
increased the burden of work with the CPIOs. So it is recommended that the
ministry, on its main website, under its Suo Motu disclosure, give a chart
showing the basic functions of each division.

G. Various CPIOs have observed that the questions asked are not pointed and
meaningful at certain times, making it difficult for them to understand.

H. Inadequate space, staff and infrastructure to maintain records and manage the
files. Thus, it becomes difficult to keep the files in a proper manner, arrange
papers and attach full information within the file. The CPIOs have mentioned
these constraints to the authorities several times but of no avail.

I. A separate file for each RTI application should be made in accordance with a
notification ordered by the DOPT.

J. A dedicated cabinet should be made for keeping the files of RTI applications
making them easier. Moreover, the cabinets should be tagged with labels for
easy retrieval of all kinds of files.

K. Some divisions of the department suffers from serious lack of space to keep
the files as a result of which many of the files are kept on the floor bordering

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 the table. The rooms has been stuffed with files which need to be pondered
upon.

In all, this internship was a life changing experience on the basis of

knowledge, experience and exposure, and the intern hopes to continue
this association with the RTI Department.

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