Information Act: rules soon for implementation

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, OCT. 7. The rules for implementation of the Right to Information Act will be notified soon, the Minister of State for Information Technology, Prof. B.K.Chandrashekar, said here on Sunday.

Inaugurating a workshop on the Karnataka Right to Information Act here, Prof. Chandrashekar said compared to other States, including Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, which had a Right to Information Act in place, Karnataka's Act was the most ``radical''. The list of exemptions was the smallest in the Act of the State in relation to other States and even other countries.

Information regarding decisions of the Cabinet would be made available to citizens with the reasons leading to them. Every Government Order issued on the basis of Cabinet decisions should be accompanied by a statement explaining the reasons for taking those decisions. A competent authority would be appointed at the district and taluk levels in every department for disseminating information to the public. If that authority refused to part with information without a reasonable cause, a penalty of Rs. 2,000 would be imposed.

Prof. Chandrashekhar said the implementation of the Act would go a long way in bringing about transparency in administration. Though every citizen had the right to access to information regarding the functioning of the administration, people at the grassroots level were not aware of it. Organisational effort, especially by the NGOs, was necessary to educate the people, he added.

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Section  : Southern States
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