OBLIGATIONS ON PUBLIC AUTHORITIES( CLAUSE 8):

1)Both Mr. Raicharan Das, former Additional Secretary to Government of Orissa, Dept. of Revenue and Mr. Manmohan Praharaj, I.P.S, I.G, Orissa Police in their talks forcefully argued for creation and maintenance of websites by different public authorities, especially the Government Departments for disseminating most of the information relating to their affairs, which are required by the general public in course of their day to day interaction with the public authorities.

2)Mr. Arvind of 'Parivartan', New Delhi in his paper and Ms. Biraj Swain of CARE, Orissa pleaded for the reframing of the Clause 8 of the Orissa Draft Bill (Obligation on Competent Authorities) in accordance with the corresponding provision of the Delhi RTI Act 2001. It is worthwhile to reproduce the relevant provision ( Clause 4 Obligations on Public Authorities) of the Delhi RTI Act 2001:

"Obligations on Public Authorities- Every public authority shall-

  1. maintain all its records, in such a manner and form as is consistent with its operational requirements duly catalogued and indexed;
  2. publish at such intervals as may be prescribed by the Government-
    1. the particulars of its organization, functions and duties;
    2. the powers and duties of its officers and employees and the procedure followed by them in the decision making process;
    3. the norms set by the public authority for the discharge of its functions;
    4. laws, bye-laws, rules, regulation, instructions, manuals and other categories of records under its control used by its employees for discharging its functions
    5. the details of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information; and
    6. the name, designation and other particulars of the competent authority
  3. publish all relevant facts concerning important decisions and policies that affect public while announcing such decisions and policies;
  4. give reasons for its decisions, whether administrative or quasi-judicial to those affected by such decisions;
  5. before initiating any project, publish or communicate to the public generally or to the persons affected or likely to be affected by the project in particular, the facts available to it or to which it has reasonable access which, in its opinion, should be known to them in the best interests or maintenance of democratic principles."

The Recommendation is to incorporate the above provision in toto into the Clause 8 ( Obligations on Competent Authorities) of the Orissa Draft Bill

3)As Mr. Mammohan Praharaj pointed out, the Orissa Draft Bill does not specially mention the need for use of the latest information technologies and methods of collection, compilation and computerization of the information so collected and storage in such a way as to enable an information-seeker to access the documented data instantly and adequately. The Draft Bill in Clause 8 (a) should incorporate this provision as suggested by Mr. Praharaj.


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