Studies
Duty to Publish Index
What
is Duty to Publish?
All government bodies in India are bound by the Right to Information
Act, 2005 to release a large cache of information to the public,
in order to reduce the need for explicit requisitions. This
law came into force exactly a year ago on October 12th 2005.
In this last year public authorities under these governments
have released varying amounts of information that they were
required to.
The Centre for Civil Society (CCS) has constructed a Duty
to Publish Index, based on the provisions of section 4, which
assesses the compliance of any government department.
Report card
on RTI compliance of states:
This survey looked at the websites of the education ministries
of 27 states and 7 union territories, and looked for 37 key
points of information required by the RTI Act.
Education was chosen as the department to be studied, because
it is an important responsibility of the government and directly
involves the lives of many millions of Indian citizens. Assessing
the functional transparency of state education departments
suggests the seriousness with which the states themselves
are taking their Duty to Publish.
The results are startlingly poor. The average state education
ministry discloses only 29% of the information that they are
required to under the RTI Act. Leaders Madhya Pradesh and
Uttaranchal publish 87% and 76% of the required information,
respectively. Chandigarh (62%) and Delhi (54%) top the Union
Territories. ‘Progressive’ states like Rajasthan
and Tamil Nadu get low 11% and 5% scores. Assam, Dadra &
Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Jharkhand and Sikkim disclose
no information at all.
Media Release: CCS held a press conference on the 11th of
October 2006 at the Press Club of India, New Delhi to release
the results of the studies. The press releases and other documents
are linked below.
Report card
on RTI compliance of 6 metros:
In this survey 5 public services (local government, public
health, sanitation, bus transport and water supply) across
the 6 metros (Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata
and Mumbai) were assessed for compliance with Section 4 of
the RTI Act.
Efficient implementation of projects is a central theme of
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
JNNURM is a central grant scheme which aims at rapid reform
and urban renewal. One of the mandatory reforms under this
scheme is a powerful Duty to Publish law applicable to municipalities.
Such laws provide powerful tools for efficient monitoring
of this large scale scheme by civil society organisations.
Delhi releases just 65% of the required information, but is
the leader in fulfilling its Duty to Publish obligations when
compared with other metros in this study. Delhi public authorities:
Delhi Jal Board and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi are
top two of the 30 agencies studied in this survey, disclosing
89% and 76% respectively. In spite of this good news, most
cities lag behind, with the average compliance rate being
29%. 62% of the local public authorities surveyed did not
provide any information about their Public Information Officers.
Media Release: CCS held a press conference on the 19th of
October 2006 at the Press Club of India, New Delhi from 4pm
to 5pm. The press handouts and presentation are linked below.
Shekhar Singh (Founder member of the National
Campaign for the People's Right to Information) and Gautam
Bastian (Editorial Associate, Centre for Civil Society) fielding
questions from the press about the Duty to Publish.
(11th October 2006)
Media coverage:
For further information please contact Gautam
Bastian, Editorial Associate, CCS at gautam -at- ccs.in
or +91 99103 49029.
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%20and%20Gautam%20Bastian(right).jpg "Click here to read the press release [PDF]")
