Declaration made by the participants of the Third National RTI Convention Held in Shillong between March 10, 2011 – March 12, 2011
- We strongly demand from the government that they take immediate action to properly implement proactive disclosures under Section 4 of the RTI Act
- We urgently need an anti-corruption Commission or Body like the Lokpal/Lokayukt which can make sure that information accessed through the RTI that exposes corruption is acted upon and that the guilty are held accountable
- It is the moral responsibility of the government to ensure the protection of RTI activists and users, and they must take not just swift legal action against the culprits but also ensure that the information being accessed by the assaulted activist is urgently made public
- There must be a process by which all legislation before it goes through the Parliament or legislative assemblies is put out in public domain in its draft form and there is public consultation before enactment
- The selection and functioning of Information Commissions requires overhaul, and the selection and appointment transparent and their functioning keeping public interest and transparency in the fore front
- We want GoI to set up a national RTI Council (similar to CEGC) which has as members people from the states, so that problems in implementing the RTI Act can be monitored regularly
- Public Private Partnerships, private sector, political parties, trade unions, NGOs, cooperative societies are under the RTI Act. Rules and procedures need to defined to ensure that information from them can be accessed easily
- Exemptions given under Section 24 to security and intelligence agencies are irrational and contrary to national interest, and they need to be removed – not by amendment of the Act but by withdrawing the list of notified agencies.
- For those areas in the NE, where there are no local governments (Panchayati Raj limitations like in the NE), rules need to defined to make access of local level information easy under the RTI Act
- There must be transparency of religious institutions and the use of public money for religious purpose should be transparent
- All government expenditure must be subject to social/public audits
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