Since I have not gone through the Draft Bill thoroughly, I shall speak out on the basis of my personal experience and also on basis of what I gathered from the discussions made here by different speakers. Just as Mr.Puranjan Ray, the previous speaker said, all of us who are sitting here, know quite well, how far the laws of the land are being implemented in practice.

I don't know how far the present Government who have circulated a Working Paper or the Draft Bill on Orissa Right to Information Act.2002, would entertain the suggestions being put forth here in this Consultation or which were put forth earlier in the Consultations organized by CYSD & CARE.

As far as I understand, in a Welfare State like India, Right to Information was implicit in the fundamental rights of the citizens as enshrined in the Constitution. Now with a separate Act going to be made on Right to Information, every citizen shall be entitled to know about each and every development scheme implemented by the Government.

Under the Right to Information law, the Block and Panchayat Officers are supposed to inform the common people about various welfare schemes operating in their respective areas. But the moot point is, how far these officers themselves are equipped with the knowledge of the various schemes, before they are able to disseminate the same among the people at large. My experience is that all the information relating to various developmental schemes remain stuck up at the level of bureaucrats, who have neither the knowledge nor the attitude to understand and further disseminate the same to anybody else. On several occasions, I myself sat with the officers and wanted to know from them about these matters. But every time I was surprised to see that they were utterly incapable of explaining to me the substance of the laws and schemes that they dealt with. It is a bitter truth they try to take personal advantage from the ignorance of the public. I myself was a victim of such nefarious behavior of the bureaucrats.

So my suggestion is that, the bureaucrats who have a primary role to play in the implementation of Right to Information at every level, should be sensitized enough as to how to deal with the public in a transparent manner.