Coming soon: an RTI project monitoring unit -Governance Now

Coming soon: an RTI project monitoring unit

Unit to coordinate with all ministries and departments in a bid to ensure section 4 of RTI Act is implemented, says DoPT official

Brajesh Kumar | April 29, 2013

Soon after issuing a detailed guideline on the effective implementation of section 4 of the RTI Act-2005, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) is setting up a project monitoring unit (PMU) to monitor its compliance from all the central ministries and departments.

“The PMU will coordinate with all ministries and departments and ensure that section 4 for RTI is implemented,” a DoPT official said.

The PMU would be headed by the management consultant and supported by senior management associates, management associates and programmers. A circular to this effect was issued by the DoPT last week.

On April 15, the DoPT had issued detailed guidelines on the suo motu implementation of section 4 of the RTI Act, which mandates proactive disclosures from public authorities. The guidelines talked about setting up a compliance mechanism wherein every ministry/department would have to send action taken report on the compliance to DoPT.

“The PMU will ensure these ATRs are filed and the deadlines met,” the DoPT official said.

The PMU will have the additional task of assisting in the running of the proposed RTI web portal.

“The personnel of the PMU will be expected to devise the capacity building strategies for smooth implementation of web portal and other RTI related projects,” the DoPT circular said. “They would also arrange for training workshop of nodal officers, central public information officers and first appellate authorities of the public authorities of main ministries/departments located in New Delhi to apprise them about the portal.”

The proposed portal, developed by NIC, would be a facility for Indian citizens to file RTI applications online. The portal would also work as RTI management information system (MIS). The details of RTI applications received through post would also be entered into this system.

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