Implementation of RTI Act

04 MAR 2020

The Central Government is fully committed to implement the Right to Information (RTI) Act in respect of public authorities under it. Each State Government is responsible for implementation of the Right to Information Act in respect of the public authorities in the State concerned.

In respect of the Central Information Commissions, the appointment process has been conducted duly as and when vacancies were required to be filled up and has not been at preliminary stage.

Also check: DoPT – Notification regarding RTI Rules 2019

The Hon’ble Supreme Court vide its Order dated 16.12.2019 in M.A. No. 1979 of 2019 in WP (C) No. 436 of 2018: Ms Anjali Bhardwaj & Others Vs. Union of India and Others pertaining to fill up the vacancies in Central Information Commissions, has inter-alia directed that the Government complete the process of appointment in 3 months.

The process has reached an advanced stage for appointment of the Chief Information Commissioner and one Information Commission in Central Information Commission.

This information was provided by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

MACP ON PROMOTIONAL HIERARCHY – MACP Supreme Court Order – Heard & Reserved – Order dated 23 Jan 2020

PIB

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DoPT Orders 2019

MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND PENSIONS
(Department of Personnel and Training)

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 24th October, 2019

G.S.R. 810(E).– In exercise of the powers conferred by clauses (ca) and (cb) of sub-section (2) of section 27 of Right to Information Act, 2005 (22 of 2005), the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely:-

CHAPTER I

PRELIMINARY

Short title and commencement.- (1) These rules may be called The Right to Information (Term of Office, Salaries, Allowances and Other Terms and Conditions of Service of Chief Information Commissioner,
Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission, State Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioners in the State Information Commission) Rules, 2019.
(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

Get More: Latest DoPT Orders 2019

CHAPTER II

2. Definitions.- (1) In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires, –

(a) “Act” means the Right to Information Act, 2005 (22 of 2005);
(b) “Central Information Commission” shall have the same meaning assigned to it under clause (b) of section 2 of the Act ;
(c) “Chief Information Commissioner” and “Information Commissioner” shall have the same meaning assigned to it under clause (d) of section 2 of the Act;
(d) “State Chief Information Commissioner” and “State Information Commissioner” shall have the same meaning assigned to it under clause (l) of section 2 of the Act;
(e) “State Information Commission” shall have the same meaning assigned to it under clause (k) of section 2 of the Act.
(2) The words and expressions used and not defined under these rules, but defined in the Act shall have the same meaning as respectively assigned to them in the Act.

CHAPTER III

TERM OF OFFICE, SALARIES, ALLOWANCES AND OTHER TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE OF THE CHIEF INFORMATION COMMISSIONER AND INFORMATION COMMISSIONER IN THE CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION

3. Term of office.- The Chief Information Commissioner, or Information Commissioners, as the case may be, shall hold office for a period of three years from the date on which he enters upon his office.

4. Retirement from parent service on appointment.- The Chief Information Commissioner or Information Commissioners, as the case may be, who on the date of his appointment to the Commission, was in the service of the Central or a State Government, shall be deemed to have retired from such service with effect from the date of his appointment as Chief Information Commissioner or an Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission.

5. Pay.- (1) The Chief Information Commissioner shall receive a pay of Rs. 2,50,000 (Rupees two lakh and fifty thousand)(fixed) per mensem.
(2) An Information Commissioner shall receive a pay of Rs. 2,25,000 (Rupees two lakh and twenty five thousand) (fixed) per mensem.
(3) In case the Chief Information Commissioner or Information Commissioners, as the case may be, at the time of his appointment is, in receipt of any pension, the pay of such Chief Information Commissioner or
Information Commissioners, as the case may be, shall be reduced by the amount of that pension including any portion of pension which was commuted and pension equivalent of other forms of retirement benefits
excluding pension equivalent of retirement gratuity;
(4) In case the Chief Information Commissioner or Information Commissioners, as the case may be, at the time of his appointment, is in receipt of retirement benefits in respect of any previous service rendered in
Corporation established by or under any Central Act or State Act or a Government company owned or controlled by the Central Government or the State Government, his pay in respect of the service as the Chief
Information Commissioner or Information Commissioners, as the case may be, shall be reduced by the amount of pension equivalent to the retirement benefits.

6. Dearness Allowance. – The Chief Information Commissioner or Information Commissioners, as the case may be, shall be entitled to draw dearness allowance at the rate admissible to an officer holding a post
carrying the same pay in the Central Government, as revised from time to time.

7. Leave.- (1) The Chief Information Commissioner or Information Commissioners, as the case may be, shall be entitled to rights of leave as per admissibility to an officer holding a post carrying the same pay in the
Central Government, as revised from time to time.
(2) In case the Chief Information Commissioner, the competent authority to sanction the leave shall be the President of India and in case of the Information Commissioners, the Chief Information Commissioner shall
be the competent authority.

8. Cash Payment in lieu of unutilised Earned Leave.- The Chief Information Commissioner or Information Commissioners, as the case may be, shall be entitled to encashment of fifty per cent. of earned leave to his credit at the time of completion of tenure:

Provided that for a Chief Information Commissioner or an Information Commissioner, as the case may be, who had retired from the service of the Central or a State Government prior to appointment as a Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioner, as the case may be, the aggregate period for which the encashment of unutilised earned leave shall be entitled shall be subject to a maximum period as per admissibility to an officer holding a post carrying the same pay in the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be, as revised from time to time.

9. Medical Facilities.- The Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners, as the case may be, shall be entitled to medical treatment and Hospital facilities as provided in the Central Government Health Scheme and at places where the Central Government Health Scheme is not in operation, the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioner shall be entitled to medical facilities as provided in the Central Service (Medical Attendance) Rules, 1944.

10. Accommodation.- (1) The Chief Information Commissioner or Information Commissioners, as the case may be, shall be eligible subject to availability, to the use of official residence from the general pool accommodation of the type as admissible to an officer holding a post carrying the same pay in the Central Government on the payment of the license fee at the rates prescribed by Central Government from time to time.
(2) Where Chief Information Commissioner or an Information Commissioner is not provided with or does not avail himself of the general pool accommodation referred to in sub-rule (1), he may be paid House Rent Allowance at the rate admissible to an officer holding a post carrying the same pay in the Central Government.

11. Leave Travel Concession, Travelling Allowance, Daily Allowance.- The Chief Information Commissioner or Information Commissioners, as the case may be, shall be entitled to leave travel concession, travelling allowance and daily allowance as admissible to an officer holding a post carrying the same pay in the Central Government as far as may be, apply to the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioner, as the case may be.

Source: DoPT

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(GOVERNMENT OF INDIA)
(MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS)
(RAILWAY BOARD)
******

No.ERB-I/2018/23/43

New Delhi, dated 05.10.2018

ORDER

Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) have decided to constitute a Committee for planning of various Signaling and Telecommunication modernization works on IR. The Committee will consist of the following:-

(i) Shri N. Kashinath, DG(S&T), Railway Board …………. Chairman
(ii)Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor/IIT Chennai …………. Special Invitee
(iii) Shri Sunil Gupta, ED/Mobility(S&T), Railway Board …………Member
(iv) Shri Pradeep M Sikdar, ED/Signal Development, Railway Board …. Member
(v) Shri Sandeep Mathur, ED/Coordination/Signal/RDSO …………. Member

2. The Terms of Reference of the Committee will be as under:-

“To close pending issues for effective planning and smooth implementation of modernization works of Signaling and Telecommunication system.”

3. The tenure of the Committee shall be one year from the date of its constitution.

4. The Headquarters of the Committee will be at New Delhi.

5. Signal Directorate of Railway Boat will be the Nodal directorate for functioning of the Therefore, submission of report of the Committee for consideration of Railway Board, implementation of its recommendations and all related issues including Parl. Questions, RTI cases and other formalities with regard to the Committee, shall be dealt with by Signal Directorate of Railway Board.

6. The Chairman and Members of the Committee will draw TA/DA as per extant rules.

7. The Terms and Conditions of engagement of the Special Invitee (Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala) will follow.

(Vijay Kumar)
Under Secretary (Estt)-I
Railway Board

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F. No. H-12019/2/2018-AD-I
Government of India
Department of Expenditure
Ministry of Finance

Room No. 264-B, North Block,
New Delhi, the 1st August, 2018

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Subject: Appointment of Nodal CPIO for RTI Applications and Appeals-reg

The undersigned is directed to refer to RTI Cell’s Note dated 24.7.2018 on the above mentioned subject and to state that Shri R. K.Kureel, Deputy Secretary (RTI), Department of Expenditure has been appointed as Nodal Central Public Information Officer for RTI matters in the Ministry of Finance.

It is further stated that the role of the Nodal officer for RTI in the Ministry of Finance would be limited to receiving the RTI applications/ appeals addressed to Ministry of Finance and forwarding the same to the concerned CPIOs in all the Departments under the Ministry of Finance.

(S. K. Biswas)
Under Secretary to the Govt. of India
Ph: 2309 5695

Source: DoE

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F.No.1/1/2013-IR
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance & Pension
Department of Personnel & Training

North Block, New Delhi
Dated the 13th September, 2017

Subject: Hiring of Personnel for Project Monitoring Unit.

The Department of Personnel & Training has set up a Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) under IR Division to monitor RTI Online Web Portal and other RTI related projects. Two Management Associates are required to be hired for the said PMU.
2. The engagement shall initially be for a period of one year on contract basis, which may be extended subject to the approval of the Competent Authority. The engagement shall be purely temporary and may be terminated at any time without assigning any reason by giving a notice of 30 days. The candidate shall not have any claim of any regular appointment under the Government.
3. The personnel in PMU are expected to perform the following tasks:

i. Coordination with the Public Authorities, training institutes, NIC, SBI and other agencies etc.

ii. Mechanisms to be put in place to ensure the quality of service to the stakeholders.

iii. Monitor the helpdesk to provide end-user support.

iv. To devise capacity building strategies for smooth implementation of RTI Online Web Portal and other RTI related projects.

v. Evaluation of the feedback from the end-users in consultation with the technical team of NIC.

vi. Arrange for training/ workshop of Nodal Officers, Central Public Information Officers and First Appellate Authority of the Public Authority aligned with/ to be aligned with RTI Online Portal.

vii. To help IR Division in preparing Terms of References/ RFPs for various RTI related projects, briefing and debriefing, circulation of reports, etc.

viii. To assist in analysing the reports of interns and fellows engaged with IR Division.

ix. To assist in smooth rolling out of mobile app of RTI.

x. Regular basis with NIC technical team for improvement and advancements in the RTI Online Portal.

xi. Any other relevant task assigned by the IR Division of DoPT.

4. The necessary qualification, experience and the maximum gross salary of the above mentioned personnel is as under;

* The required Education qualification should be from a reputed University/ Institution.

5. Selection of the personnel would be undertaken through an interview and would be based on their Education qualification, experience and performance in the interview. The gross monthly salary indicated in Para 4 is the maximum that could be offered.
6. Candidates who satisfy the above qualification may submit application in the format attached with this advertisement by post/ email. The applications shall be submitted alongwith the application, photocopies of their certificates as proof of their education qualification and experience and one latest passport size photograph. The application should be addressed to Shri. M.M. Maurya, Under Secretary,
Department of Personnel & Training, North Block, New Delhi-110001. The application submitted through email should be sent to usir-dopt@nic.in. The last date for receiving the application in Department of Personnel & Training is 3 rd October, 2017.

(M.M.Maurya)
Under Secretary to Government of India
Tel.23040401

To,
Sr.Technical Director, NIC-DoPT, North Block, New Delhi-110001 with the request to kindly have the above advertisement uploaded on the website www.persmin.nic.in (in OMs and Orders and what’s new) and www.rti.gov.in.

Source: DoPT Download PDF

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D.O. NO.1/Misc.maters/2016-IR (Pt-II)

Dated: 20.09.2016

Dear Nodal Officer,

As you are aware that, one of the action points emerged out of the presentation made by group of secretaries before Hon’ble Prime Minister, is to expand Right to Information (RTI) Management Information System (MIS) web portal to cover all Public Authorities (PAs) under Central Government. Department of Personnel & training (DoPT) being the Nodal Agency for implementation of RTI Act, 2005 in India have been reiterating the importance and urgency of aligning Public Authorities with the DoPT’s RTI Online Portal.

Since the inception of the portal, till date, 690 PAs have so far been aligned with this portal.
2. In this regard, DoPT took an initiative and conducted a series of training  workshops for each of the Nodal Officer (who is the focal point of the concerned Public Authority and who receives RTF applications/appeals and further distributes these to the concerned CPIOs/FAAs in the Organisation) under various Public Authorities, Ministry/Department wise during June July, 2016. This exercise was conducted for a month covering around 330 PAs under 10 Central Ministries/Department.

3. Out of 330 PAs invited for these training sessions, around 51 PAs/Nodal Officers neither did attend the workshops nor share their Nodal Officers details for creating Username and Password, a step required to be done before online alignment is made. Since, all the PAs (around 2000) will have to be aligned in a time bound manner (a target timeline fixed and monitored at the highest level), DoPT is organising yet another training workshop as a special drive for those defaulted PAs/Nodal Officers who did not attend the workshops conducted for them in June-July, 2016, as a last opportunity being provided to them.

4. It is therefore requested that all Nodal Officers under 51 PAs as per list attached to attend the workshop ‘without fail’ being organised by DoPT on 27th September, 2016 at CSOI, Vi nay Marg, New Delhi from 2:30 PM to 5:30PM.

5. Although this training schedule is primarily meant for the Nodal Officers only, it is suggested that in case there is only one or few CPIO and FAA each in any PA, they may also be asked to attend the training. However, in case of large no of CPIOs/FAAs under any PA, DoPT will organize separate training programmes for them upon receiving request from that PA.

6. The invited Nodal Officers may further note that they have to share mandatorily their details (i.e. Name, Designation, e-Mail 10 & Phone No.) for creation of user name and password by the Project Management Unit (PMU) members on the day of the training. After training of Nodal officers, the concerned PAs will be aligned with the Portal. The PMU will be providing all the necessary support to the PAs/Nodal Officers for their alignment with the portal. The PMU team is headed by:
Shri Piyush Kanal (Sr. Manager Associate/Head PMU)
E-mail Id: rtipmu-dopt@nic.in
Phone No: 011 24648977178
Address: Room No. 384, 3rd Floor
LokNayak Shawan, Khan Market
New Delhi 110003.

7. It may be noted by all concerned that no further opportunity would be given to the Nodal Officers after this workshop. In case, the concerned Nodal Officer is unable to attend this training as per given schedule and fails to provide user name and password to the PMU team, the username will be created suo-muto and the concerned PAs will be made live on the RTI Online Portal w.e.f 30th September, 2016, by DoPT.

With regards,

(Gayatri Mishra)
Director (Information Right)

i. Head of the Public Authority With a request to relieve the Nodal Officer for the above stated training with all details

ii. Joint Secretary in the Deptt./Ministry with a request to issue suitable instruction to the concerned Public Authorities to relieve the Nodal Officers for the above stated training.

Source: Persmin

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As per guidelines dated 15.04.2015 issued by the Government of India, the Ministries/Departments of the Government of India and other Public Authorities are proactively working towards suo-motu disclosure of information on their websites so as to reduce the need for filing RTI applications.

As per the Annual Report of the Central Information Commission (CIC), 75.27% of the Public Authorities have filed their Annual Returns to the CIC for 2014-15, which is higher than the figure of 72.54 % for 2013-14, indicating an improved compliance over the previous year.

With a view to maximize suo-motu disclosure by public authorities, Government has issued guidelines to all the Ministries/Departments of Govt. of India on 15.4.2013. Government has further issued O.M. dated 29.06.2015 ensuring compliance to the recommended measures for strengthening implementation of Section 4 of RTI Act, by all public authorities. Another O.M. dated 9.7.2015 has been issued for appointment of a nodal officer of the rank of Joint Secretary for implementation of Section 4 of RTI Act.

The CIC has provided web based software known as RTI Annual Return Information System for uploading annual return online at URL http://rtiaar.nic/rtiar09/login.asp.

The CIC has, from time to time, issued letters to various defaulting Public Authorities for submission of quarterly returns.

This was stated by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Shri A. W. Rabi Bernard in the Rajya Sabha today.

PIB

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7th Pay Commission Latest News – RTI reply reveals Pay Parity denial for Defence Personnel at par with IAS, IPS and other Group A Civil Services in Central Government

At a time when Central government employees are waiting for the implementation of Seventh pay commission, a new revelation has come to light. According to reports, there is deep distrust between government and armed forces over the pay parity issue.

It is being said that three services had expressed dissatisfaction over some of the recommendations of the Pay commission and had requested Commission to make required changes. Later pay commission approached Defence Ministry with their demands.

Now under RTI query, it has been revealed that the Defence Ministry negated army officers pay parity with civilian counterparts in IAS, IPS and other allied services.

An Army officer was quoted by ET as saying, “We thought it was the pay commission that was selling us short, but this RTI actually revealed it was the Defence Ministry officials”. Ministry also gave reasons why their demands were not approved. “The basis of this demand i.e. merger of rank pay in basic pay was examined in a detailed matter by the Pranab Mukherjee committee report and the same was not accepted hence the case is not supported”, officer further said.

Ministry also not accepted Army men’s argument that civilian bureaucrat mustn’t be paid equal sum of amount in comparison to their defence counterparts. Defence Ministry said that both are different thing as their service conditions and the nature of job is quite different.

What are the grievances of armed forces? Army Officers say that if the Pay Commission is implemented in the present form, it will position them much below their civilian counterparts in terms of salaries, facilities and status.

One of the main grudge that the armed forces have is with regard to risk-hardship matrix. The officers say that a soldier posted in Siachen Glacier, which has the highest degree of both risk and hardship, gets an allowance of Rs 31,500 per month.

In contrast, a civilian bureaucrat from the All India Services draws 30 per cent of his salary as “hardship allowance” when posted anywhere outside the comfort zone.

Under the new scale, a senior IAS official posted in a city in northeast will draw much more as “hardship allowance”, compared to the Rs 31,500 per month drawn by military officers in Siachen.

Source: One India

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In what has given a fresh impetus to distrust between the armed forces and the government an RTI has come to fore further exacerbating the ongoing agitation over implementation of one rank one pension policy.

“We thought it was the pay commission that was selling us short, but this RTI actually revealed it was the Ministry of Defence officials,” said an officer at army headquarters, requesting not to be named.

In their presentations to the pay commission the three services raised a number of issues, but when the pay commission sought the defence ministry’s comments and recommendation, the ministry negated most of the demands of the services, the officer said.

On the issue of pay to Lt Colonels and Colonels, a major cause of concern among the armed forces, the defence ministry said in its reply to RTI application, “The basis of this demand i.e. merger of rank pay in basic pay was examined in a detailed matter by the Pranab Mukherjee committee report and the same was not accepted hence the case is not supported.”

Similarly, on the demand for equal work for armed forces personnel and civilians working side by side, the ministry said the concept of equal pay and equal work in this case is not feasible since the service conditions and the nature of job of services personnel and defence civilians are totally different.

On the issue of parity between civilians and central armed police forces, the ministry said that the army being a fighting force has its own command and control functions in its hierarchy and hence no comparison can be made with the civilians.

The ministry’s views, when read alongside the recommendations of the pay commission, do little to win the confidence of the armed forces, a senior army officer said, especially since the hardship allowances, disability allowances and basic pay scales of Colonels and Brigadiers have been reduced as compared to their counterparts in IAS, IPS and other allied services.

“I will have young officers and men fighting heavily armed terrorists in counter-insurgency areas and getting 5,000-10,000 rupees for their risk, while a bureaucrat posted at Guwahati will get five times for his hardship,” the officer said.

The anomalies of the Sixth Pay commission have been left unaddressed by the Seventh Pay Commission to further disadvantage of the armed forces, he said.

Read more at:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

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Chennai: More than two decades after implementation of Mandal commission report, which mandates 27 percent reservation for OBCs in central government jobs, an RTI data shows that less than 12 percent of employees of central government ministries, departments and statutory bodies are from other backward classes (OBCs) as on January 1, 2015.

What’s more, 40 ministries, including social justice and 48 departments held back the information sought by Chennai based scientist E Muralidharan under the Right to Information Act. Among the departments that have not provided any information is ministry of human resources, which is a major employer of group A employees like professors in IITs and other central educational institutions.

Going by the data available, under the group A, B,C and D category of employees, out of 79,483 posts, there are only 9,040 OBC staff.

Surprisingly, data provided by the department of personnel and training, which was the recipient of the RTI appeal and is responsible for the appointments, itself fares poorly in this regard, with 12.91 percent Scheduled Castes (SC), 4 percent Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 6.67 percent OBC forming the pool of employees under the reservation laws. The total number of personnel in the department is 6,879.

This means that a significant number of posts which have been allocated for these communities are yet to be filled, which raises questions on the effective implementation of the Mandal committee recommendations, Muralidharan said.

A closer look at the data indicates that there is not a single OBC Grade A officer in the President’s secretariat; less than 9 percent of the 651 Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) staff is from the OBC category. The higher education department employs only 5 percent OBC in Grade A officers and 10 percent OBC staff. Out of 41 Grade A posts in the department of scientific and industrial research, there is only one OBC officer.

Muralidharan has repeatedly filed RTIs every year to check the performance of the central government in appointments under reserved categories. “The departments are supposed to release the data, but they have been found wanting,” he said.

In the RTI query, Muralidharan asked what action was initiated against ministries and departments which did not provide the data. The under-secretary of the department of personnel and training, Raju Saraswat replied that two reminders were sent to the departments concerned, but he failed to state if any action was taken.

Muralidharan said that it was mandatory for the departments and ministries to furnish these details to DoPT by January 1 every year as per an office memorandum (OM No. No.43011/10/2002-Estt (Res.), dated December 19, 2003.

He pointed out that the poor implementation of caste-based reservations would result in the wedge of inequality increasing. “Reservations should be time-bound and there must be a of the positions filled,” he said.

TNN

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