www.digitalgoa.com
1 to 31st December 2013
Blatant Violation of
RTI Act by Govt Websites
RTI Forum to go on hunger strike in protest: CIC expresses discontent
December 2013 - Despite several
deadlines from the center, latest being on 10th December 2013, Goa
Government has miserably failed
to comply with Section 4 of the RTI
Act 2005 which stipulates Suo Motu
proactive disclosure of Information on the Government websites
for bringing about transparency in
Governance.
The state portal -- www.goa.gov.
in -- and over 88 other websites of
the state government are grossly
violating Section 4 of the RTI act
2005. But a more repulsive fact is
the pathetic state of the centralized
website http://egov.goa.nic.in/rtipublic which is supposedly dedicated to information disseminated by
Timeline of RTI Guidelines for Suo Motu proactive
disclosures and deadlines in the year 2013
* 10 th Dec 2013 - Reminder for compliance and corresponding reports
* 21st Nov 2013 - Additional guidelines with emphasis on Public Distribution Systems (PDS) and Educational Institutions
* 15th April 2013- memorandum for Suo Motu proactive disclosure of
information with 6 months deadline (which ended in
October 2013)
Prior to this guidelines and clarifications were issued time and again
on RTI act 2005 in 2008, 2010, 2011 for proactive disclosure of information.
various departments under RTI act
2005. The website designed by NIC
has not been updated since 2009 but
is mentioned everywhere as official
RTI website of Government of Goa.
And most importantly the Information Commissioners website itself is
not updated for ages now.
To protest against this apathy
(Cont on pg 9)
Citizens asked to shell out thousands for
information which should have been in public domain by default
Government departments fail to proactively upload
information in the public domain on their websites and
therefore citizens are compelled to file RTI applications
even for trivial information. In response to RTI application questions government departments usually answer
by giving references to circulars, annexure, contracts
etc . If one wants to actually see or use these documents,
the citizen is asked to shell out thousands of rupees for
photocopying these documents which actually should
have been on the government websites.
For obvious reasons, option for E-documents
(softcopies) is not available. So you either shell out
thousands of rupees and get the information or refrain
from asking for any information and raising your voice
against flaunting of public funds.
We filed an RTI with Department of Information
technology on a ‘white elephant’ PPP project and were
given a reply in which every second question of ours
was answered as - reference to document so and so.
In the end we were ‘advised’ to pay over 800 Rs to get
the referred documents photocopied!
These documents should have been in the public
domain as per office memorandum reference no
No.1/6/2011-IR issued by Government of India which
states clearly If Public services are proposed to be provided
through a Public Private Partnership (PPP), all information relating to the PPPs must be disclosed in the public
domain by the Public Authority entering into the PPP
contract/concession agreement.
E-Governance is a
powerful tool for
G-Governance
- Leena Mehendale
3
Sorry state of Goa
Government websites
-Dr Nandkumar Kamat
4
E-governance in
Goa s�ll in its infancy
– Venkatesh Prabhu
10
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