HARC
(State partner of PRIA in Uttarakhand)
has undertaken many initiatives
to promote the RTI movement in the
state
Campaigns
For
spreading information on RTI at the
grassroots level, HARC organised Gram
Sabha Jagrukta Abhiyan, orientation
workshops, and information dissemination
programmes by organising various Shivirs.
The campaign was organised in two
phases.
The
first phase focused on spreading awareness
about the various provisions of the
Act to Gram Sabha members, CBOs and
Panchayat representatives and the
second phase focused on spreading
awareness to the PRIs regarding proactive
disclosure of information, under section
4 of RTI. Pradhans were also oriented
on their roles as PIO, and for proactive
disclosure of information under section
4 of RTI. An open ballot paper campaign
was initiated against the proposed
amendments to Right To Information
Act 2005. The ballot papers received
from PRIA against the proposed amendment
were sent to partners. This campaign
has been initiated to pressurise the
United Progressive Government to shelve
the Amendment Bill permanently.
Cluster
level, Nyaya Panchayat level, block
level and district level orientation
programmes were organised at Chamoli,
Champawat, Pauri and Dehradun for
CBOs, Gram Sabha members, Panchayat
representatives, Citizen Leaders for
giving information about the various
provisions of RTI. The Panchayat representatives
were informed that PRIs, on receiving
the application, have a duty to proactively
publish their information, under section
4 of RTI. The orientation workshops
for the citizens are organised not
only in rural areas but in town areas
of Chamoli and Champawat to mobilise
citizens to make use of RTI to get
important information as and when
need arises. A rally of students of
a primary school of Gwad, was organised
by the facilitating centre. The rally
was organised from the primary school
in Gwad to Devaldhar in which 110
students raised slogans on the importance
of RTI.
Workshops/Training
Programmes
A
state level workshop for CSOs was
organised by HARC on July 26th and
27th 2006 at Dehradun to orient and
involve CSOs in spreading awareness
of RTI among citizens. The workshop
provided a platform to the CSOs for
a direct interface with the Chief
Information Commissioner, Uttarakhand
and state coordinator, Task Force
to share their grassroots level issues
at policy level. Their queries were
sorted out by the Chief Information
Commissioner. 51 participants from
22 organisations participated in the
workshop. HARC with its partner CSOs
prepared a charter of demands regarding
the implementation of RTI in Uttarakhand.
The charter of demands has been presented
to the Chief Information Commissioner,
state coordinator and media.
Orientation
workshops were organised at Dasholi
and Karanprayag block of district
Chamoli, Lohaghat and Pati block of
district Champawat to provide information
to citizen leaders, Gram Panchayat
members, Gram Sabha members and SHGs
and MDDs on various provisions of
RTI. More than 100 citizen leaders,
SHGs and MMDs were given information
about RTI pertaining to who the public
authorities are, who are the PIO and
APIO in the department, which information
could be received free of cost, what
the process of getting information
etc through these workshops is, etc.
Citizen leaders were also oriented
on their roles and responsibilities
during the workshop.
Promoting
Proactive disclosure
The
Right to Information Act not only
provides a means for people to access
information from PRIs upon request,
but also makes a provision for PRIs
to publish important information proactively.
One of the methods of proactive disclosure
is preparation of manuals. A guideline
was prepared by SRC for preparing
manuals at Panchayat level. The guidelines
were shared with State Coordinator
RTI. The suggestions given by him
were incorporated and the guidelines
were then passed on to DRC.
The
manual preparation was initiated in
two Gram Panchayats, Rolliguard and
Sirloi of Chamoli district. District
administration also provided support
by instructing Gram Vikas Adhikari
to provide support to the Gram Pradhan
and staff in the preparing of the
manuals. The prepared manuals were
shared with the Chief Information
Commissioner of Uttranchal and his
suggestions were incorporated in the
same. The prepared manuals have been
again submitted to the Commission
for final comments.
Impact
•
A cadre of RTI volunteers was developed
consisting of citizen leaders, ex-army
persons etc. so that the information
about RTI could reach to a larger
number of people. • After
receiving knowledge about RTI, people
filed applications with Government
departments/agencies for getting information.
• At Gram Panchayat Baindu,
villagers monitored the Khadanja(village
road) construction work that was being
done in the village. •
Panchayat Prerak filed application
to get information from Jal Sansthan
about the different schemes of drinking
water being implemented in 9 blocks
of Chamoli district and the funds
allocated for their villages under
the scheme. The department provided
all the information, which was subsequently
disseminated, to people. •
Gram Pradhans were sensitised about
their role as Public Information Officers(PIOs),
instructed that they were bound to
give information whenever they received
any application for information after
attending the training programmes.
The district administration of Chamoli
issued a letter to all the Gram Vikas
Adhikaris for organising wall writings
at Panchayat Bhawans or any other
common place in the village.
• As a result of the orientation
of Panchayat representatives on the
issue of devolution,a number of applications
were filed for getting the information
regarding the status of the devolution
process by Gram Panchayats of Siroli,
Ghat, Sartoli, Pursadi and Talvadi
Khalsa. •As a result of
the sensitisation of panchayat representatives,
in 10 Gram Panchayats, wall writing
has been done under section 4 of RTI
which contains all formal details
like the number of schemes under which
works are being done in the village,
budget received by Panchayats, amount
of funds spent in different works,
number of beneficiaries, numbers.
of job cards issued, numbers. of people
who received jobs under the NREGA
scheme etc. • A 10 point
charter of demands regarding the implementation
of RTI has been prepared by HARC and
partner CSOs and presented to the
state government, Information Commission`s
office and media. • Facilitation
centre is getting recognition in the
district. This could be because the
facilitation centre was invited to
the inaugural ceremony of the guesthouse
of the Gram Panchayat Mandal to inform
people about the Right to Information
Act. After being briefed on RTI, Shri
Keshav Ram filed an application to
the Mandi Samiti, Tanakpur for getting
information regarding road construction
in his area. He has not received the
information yet, but the road construction
has been started. • In
response to an application filed by
Sarpanch Smt. Harivodhani Khatri,
on information regarding works to
be done by van panchayats and budget
allocated to the van panchayats, she
received reply from the department.
• The Pradhan of Gram Panchayat
Sutol of Chamoli filed an application
to the Lok Nirman Vibhag for getting
information about the budget expenditure
on the motor marg of Ghat-Sitel. He
was given information by the department
but the information was not complete.
DRC is following up on this issue
with the Pradhan and motivating him
to file complaint to appellate body.
