Gujarat govt institute "fails" to train officials into RTI rules, babus ignorant of mode of payment to file plea

MAGP's RTI campaign

By Pankti Jog*
Manojbhai Patel filed a right to information (RTI) plea with the district collector's office, Ahmedabad, by pasting a revenue stamp worth Rs 20 on July 7, 2015.He was surprise to receive a letter from the Public Information Officer (PIO) saying that his application could not be considered, as he had not paid the fee of Rs 20 by non-judicial stamp.
The letter reached Manojbhai on August 4, 2015. The PIO is also the secretary to the collector.
The Gujarat state assembly passed new rules for RTI on March 22, 2010, which included various modes for payment for RTI application, including cash, judicial stamp paper, non-judicial stamp, non-judicial stamp paper, franking, electronic stamping, demand draft, pay order, postal order, court fee stamp, revenue stamp, challan, revenue stamp, and judicial stamp paper.
Gujarat has the highest – 12 choices – for citizens for paying for RTI pleas, which makes procedure of filing application easy and hassle free.
These rules have been published in the form of a booklet by the state-controlled Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration (SPIPA), Ahmedabad, and an annual report of the institute claims that training of the officials handling RTI has been carried out, and all of them have got one booklet each.
Manojbhai, after receiving the reply, filed a complaint with the information commissioner, Gujarat. The commissioner passed an order, without conducting hearing, on September 9, 2015. The order quotes the Gujarat RTI rules, saying revenue stamp is allowed as a mode of payment, hence the PIO order of rejecting RTI application of Manojbhai is invalid. The PIO was directed to proceed as per the law.
The commissioner's order, interestingly, does not take serious note of the fact that the PIO, who is also senior official in the district collectorate of Ahmedabad, is ignorant of the Gujarat RTI rules of 2010, which are five years old.
Manojbhai is still to get information from the PIO. He doubts the intention of the PIO to furnish information, and thinks that the PIO would apply all available tactics to delay information.
Under the RTI Act, any citizen is eligible to access to information held by any public authority within 30 days. While the “demand side” of the law (citizens, public) is aware of the Act, and people file requests with proper fees following necessary procedures, the “supply side” still does not seem to have been trained personnel for implementing the Act. This is a major lacuna in access to information in Gujarat.
In Gujarat the responsibility for training government officials rests with SPIPA, which is supposed to train bureaucrats, system officials and employees on various governance issues. A plan is in existence, which envisages creation of a cadre of RTI master trainers, who would train other officials into implementing the Act at the local level. Several master trainers have been trained.
For reasons not known, however, the RTI master trainers have not conducted any training at district and block level. Hence, all RTI training is restricted to SPIPA and its regional training centres. As SPIPA gives all types of training, RTI is not its priority.
As there is staff deficit, officials are not nominated for training into RTI. Hence, even 10 years later, we are still left with huge number of employees and officials who are ignorant of the provisions of the law, and citizens have to break their heads and suffer.
Often official approach the RTI helpline run by NGO Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP) for guidance, as there is no official mechanism – a helpline or a help desk – which the PIOs and appellate authorities could approach to solve RTI issues.
The Government of India has been urging states to send proposals to run helplines, and also innovative projects for improving the implementation of the RTI Act. However, Gujarat has kept itself away from showing up its good practices in RTI.
At a recent RTI meet at the Kochrab Ashram, founded by Mahatma Gandhi in Ahmedabad before he shifted to the present Sabarmati Ashram location, activists and citizens demanded that government should improve implementation of the RTI Act.
There was a strong voice: If this did not happen, citizens would start a state-wide movement exposing the government’s hidden motive of “hiding facts from citizens” while talking loud about governance model, e-governance and transparent government.
–-
*With Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel, Ahmedabad

Comments

Unknown said…

RTI act के तहत वाराणसी के सांसद से जनहित में माँगी गयी जानकारी रेलवे बोर्ड से लंबित क्यू ?

विषय – १९५६ में जब आम लोगों की ज़मीन अधिगृहीत करके डीजल रेल इंजन कारखाना, वाराणसी की स्थापना की गयी थी तो उस समय आम लोगों को क्या-क्या सुविधा दी गयी थी?

October 16, 2015

Academics urge Azim Premji University to drop FIR against Student Reading Circle

By A Representative A group of academics and civil society members has issued an open letter to the leadership of Azim Premji University expressing concern over the filing of a police complaint that led to an FIR against a student-run reading circle following a recent incident of violence on campus. The signatories state that they hold the university in high regard for its commitment to constitutional values, critical inquiry and ethical public engagement, and argue that it is precisely because of this reputation that the present development is troubling.

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

UAPA action against Telangana activist: Criminalising legitimate democratic activity?

By A Representative The National Investigation Agency's Hyderabad branch has issued notices to more than ten individuals in Telangana in connection with FIR No. RC-04/2025. Those served include activists, former student leaders, civil rights advocates, poets, writers, retired schoolteachers, and local leaders associated with the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Indian National Congress.

The ultimate all-time ODI XI: A personal selection of icons across eras

By Harsh Thakor* This is my all-time best XI chosen for ODI (One Day International) cricket: 1. Adam Gilchrist (W) – The absolute master blaster who could create the impact of exploding gunpowder with his electrifying strokeplay. No batsman was more intimidating in his era. Often his knocks decided the fate of games as though the result were premeditated. He escalated batting strike rates to surreal realms.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Aligning too closely with U.S., allies, India’s silence on IRIS Dena raises troubling questions

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* The reported sinking of the Iranian ship IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka raises troubling questions about international norms and the credibility of the so-called rule-based order. If indeed the vessel was attacked by the American Navy while returning from a joint exercise in Visakhapatnam, it would represent a serious breach of trust and a violation of the principles that govern such cooperative engagements. Warships participating in these exercises are generally not armed for combat; they are meant to symbolize solidarity and friendship. The incident, therefore, is not only shocking but also deeply ironic.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Search This Blog