KARNATAKA INFORMATION COMMISSION

KARNATAKA INFORMATION COMMISSION WEL COME to PRESENTATION on PREPARATION OF ANNUAL REPORTS Date 23.08.2006

Karnataka Information Commission • The Right to Information Act received the assent of the President of India on 15th June, 2005 and was published in the Extra Ordinary Gazette of India on 21st June, 2005. • Sections like 4(1), 5(1)) (2) 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 24 and 28 came into force at once. The remaining provisions of this Act came into force on the one hundred and twentieth day of its enactment. That is to say that all the provisions of the Act are fully operational from 12th October, 2005.

Karnataka Information Commission • The Right to information Act 2005 mandates annual reports to be submitted by the Central and State Information Commissions [Section 25(1),(3) & (4)]. The key provisions in the Act in this regard are : • the number of requests made to each public authority; • the number of decisions where applicants were not entitled to access to the documents pursuant to the requests, the provisions of this Act under which these decisions were made and the number of times such provisions were invoked; • the number of appeals referred to the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission; as the case may be, for review, the nature of the appeals and the outcome of the appeals; • …continued

Karnataka Information Commission • the amount of charges collected by each public authority under the Act; • any facts which indicate an effort by the public authorities to administer and implement the spirit and intention of this Act; • particulars of any disciplinary action taken against any officer in respect of the administration of this Act; • Recommendations for reform, including “recommendations in respect of particular public authorities, for the development, improvement, modernization, reform or amendment to this Act or other legislation or common law or any other matter relevant for operationalizing the right to access information

Karnataka Information Commission • Publication and tabling a copy of report of State Information Commission before each House of the State Legislature: • Section 25(4) requires that the State Government as soon as practicable after the end of each year, may place the Annual Report of the Commission before each house of the State Legislature.

Karnataka Information Commission • Under the ‘CAPACITY BUILDING for Access to Information project which is a joint initiative of the Department for Personnel and Training (DOPT), Government of India and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the DOPT has selected the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad and Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA) ,Pune as the National Implementing Agency for the project. At the State level, the concerned State Administrative Training Institute will act as State Implementing Agency.

Karnataka Information Commission • Soon after the RTI Act became operational the Karnataka Information Commission wrote to the Principal Secretaries / Secretaries of various departments on 21.11.2005 requesting them to collect & compile required information for preparation of annual report and make it available to the Commission. Further it was also requested that the required information in respect of quarter October – December 2005 may be furnished by 31-01-2006.

Karnataka Information Commission • Again the Commission wrote to all the Principal Secretaries / Secretaries on 03.06.2006 enclosing model templates in which PIOs and appellate authorities may send reports to the public authorities as also a templates in which the public authorities may submit information to the department. The Commission received some sporadic responses from few field offices but no consolidated report was received from any department.

Karnataka Information Commission Formats for reporting : R.T.I. Act - 2005 FORM –I Yearly report by SPIO to Public Authority. For the year of . . . . . . .200 ..(from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . to . . . . . . . . . . . . . .) I-A] No. of requests received and charges collected during the year. *Below Poverty Line

Karnataka Information Commission Formats for reporting : I-B] No. of requests disposed off during the year. I-C] No. of requests where applicants were denied access to information along with relevant section of RTI Act, 2005 I-D] Suggestions if any (on removal of difficulties or on any other matter for operationalizing the right to access information). Place: Date: Signature of the SPIO

Karnataka Information Commission Formats for reporting : RTI Act – 2005 FORM-II- Yearly report by Appellate Authority to Public Authority. For the year of . . .. . …. 200….(from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .to . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . ) II-A] No.of appeals under consideration and charges collected. *Below Poverty line.

Karnataka Information Commission Formats for reporting : II-B] No. of appeals disposed off II-C] No. of appeals where orders of SPIO denying access to information were upheld. II-D] Suggestions if any (on removal of difficulties or on any other matter for operationalizing the right to access information. Place: Date: Signature of the Appellate Authority

RTI Act, 2005 FORM-III - Yearly Report by Public Authority to Department For the year . . . . . 200….from . . . . . . . . . . . . to . . . . . . . . .. . . . .) III-A] Disposal of requests. III-B] No. of requests where applicants were denied access to information whether in full or part along with relevant section of RTI Act, 2005.

Karnataka Information Commission Formats for reporting : III-C] No. of Appeals disposed off III-D] No. of appeals where orders of SPIO denying access to information were upheld. III-D] Suggestions if any (on removal of difficulties or on any other matter for operationalizing the right to access information. Place: Date: Signature of the Public Authority

Karnataka Information Commission Formats for reporting : RTI Act- 2005 Form-IV – Yearly Report by Department to Karnataka Information Commission For the year of . . . . . . .200..(from . . .. . .to . . . . .) IV-A] Report by Department

Karnataka Information Commission Formats for reporting : IV-B] No. of requests where access to information was denied (whether in full or part) with relevant section of RTI Act, 2005 IV-C] Report by Department – Appeals

Karnataka Information Commission Formats for reporting : IV-D] No. of appeals where orders of PIO denying access to information were upheld with relevant section of RTI Act, 2005. IV-E] Classification of applications

Karnataka Information Commission Formats for reporting : IV-F] Classifications of appeals IV-G] Suggestions if any (on removal of difficulties or on any other matter for operationalizing the right to access information) Place: Signature of the Secretary/ Date: Principal Secretary

Karnataka Information Commission • Under capacity building for access to information the Center for Good Governance, Hyderabad and the Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration, Pune, prepared a guide for preparation of the annual reports which contains suggested formats for reporting by SPIOs to the First appellate authorities, appellate authorities to the departments, and departments to the Commission. These formats are slightly different from the formats designed by the Commission. • However the Commission thought that any changes at this stage may create confusion. Therefore it is suggested that for this year the formats suggested by the Commission may be adopted for reporting. From next year onwards the formats designed by the center for good governance may be considered for reporting. • The formats suggested by the Commission have been designed for collecting information every month . These would need minor modifications for yearly reporting.

Karnataka Information Commission • Section 25 (1) of the Act states that the State Information Commission, as soon as practicable after the end of each year, prepare a report on the implementation of the provision of the this Act during that year and forward a copy thereof to the appropriate government. • The Commission has so far considered financial year as the reference year for preparation of the Annual Report. However there has been very little progress in getting the information from concerned departments. A suggestion has been received to shift the reference year. Since the Act came into force from 12th October 2005, implementation of the Act may be taken as having commenced from 12th October 2005 and as such the reference year could be October-September.

Karnataka Information Commission THANK YOU

KARNATAKA INFORMATION COMMISSION