PRIA
Chhattisgarh is engaged in promoting
RTI in the state in an effort to reach
out to all sections of the society
for the promotion and popularisation
of the Act, so that it can be used
as an instrument of social change
and empowerment. Towards this end
it took a number of key initiatives.
Campaigns
A
state level campaign was organised
in in collaboration with civil society
organisations in July 2006, in which
17 CSOs participated. Nearly 1200
visitors came to the camp to file
applications directed at different
public authorities and they were assisted
by the volunteers during this camp.70
applications were filed as a result
with the various authorities
PRIA
and CHRI organised a campaign in the
Rajnandgaon district of the state
in July 2006, in which CSOs were mobilised
to push the RTI movement in the state.
Around 600 common citizens filed RTI
applications on various issues as
part of this campaign programme. The
main objectives of the campaign were:
1. Creating awareness of the Act
2. Dissemination of study and IEC
materials
3. Providing support in filing applications
with different public authorities
4. Assisting applicants in making
up follow up on applications filed,
on which no action has so far been
undertaken
Workshops
& Training Programmes
To
prepare Master Trainers at District
and State level, YASHADA, a Pune based
development institution, organised
a three-day training workshop from
03-08-2006 to 05-08-2006 at Administrative
Academy, Raipur. PRIA Rajnandgaon
has been assigned the task of identifying
some NGOs based in Rajnandgaon District
for the training programme. A total
of four NGOs were identified including
PRIA. The training workshop began
on 03-08-2006 with the formal introduction
of the participants. The participants
were from Rajnandgaon, Bilaspur and
Raipur districts, they belonged to
the NGO and Government sector.
The
training workshops were organised
in Amgbagarh Chowki, Mohala and Manpur
in collaboration with District Administration
and CSOs. PRIA staff participated
in the workshops as trainers. The
main objectives of the workshops were
to enhance the level of awareness
among the elected representatives,
line department officials, academia
and local media personnel. The training
in each block lasted for two days.
A
total of about 150-200 participants
in three blocks were oriented on topics
like history of Right to Information,
roles and responsibilities of public
authorities, obligation of PIOs and
APIOs, format of the application,
disposal of application, exemption
provision, segregation of the information,
third party clause and provision of
appeal and punishment etc. Some of
the common expectations of the participants
from the workshop were to become familiar
with the RTI act in general and to
have the idea of technical difficulties
associated with the Act. Participants
were oriented on various aspects of
the act and the main stress was on
the filing of applications and roles
and responsibilities of the public
authorities. The main purpose of the
training workshops was to train the
District level trainers who in turn
trained the block level trainers.
Promoting
Proactive Disclosure
Initiatives
were also launched for promoting proactive
disclosure in the local self government
institutions (the Panchayats and the
municipalities) in the state.A workshop
was organised in selected districts
by PRIA for CSOs working intensively
for the promotion of RTI .In this
workshop the importance of pro-active(self)
disclosure by all Government departments
and public authorities was emphasised
CSOs
of districts Dantewara, Bastar and
Jagdalpur were oriented on the requirement
for proactive disclosure and to push
for creating public pressure on the
administration and the Government
for proactively publishing information
as mandated by Section 4 of the RTI
Act. The Pradhans and other public
officials were also acquainted with
their roles in proactive disclosure
of information.
Impact
1.
There was wide awareness created on
the RTI Act.
2. People in the intervening areas
of PRIA were motivated for filing
applications to different public authorities
through RTI.
3. There was an increase in the understanding
of the public officials on the provisions
of the Act and their obligations under
it.
4. A cadre of master trainers was
developed for information dissemination
on RTI in a TOT mode.
5. The importance of proactive disclosure
was underlined, both to the common
citizens and the public officials.
6. CSOs were mobilised for pushing
forward the demand for proactive disclosure
by all Government departments/agencies.
