States can get financial aid from the Centre to set up facilities for online filing of applications under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and other initiatives aimed at simplification and promotion of the transparency law.
Various Administrative Training Institutes (ATIs) working under the states can also get grant of a maximum of Rs 4 lakh for setting up a helpline in regional languages for answering queries of general public under the RTI Act, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) announced today.
"The facility of filing RTI applications and appeals online through RTI online web portal has been launched and is being implemented in all the ministries or departments of Government of India situated in New Delhi.
"The same facility can be extended to state government offices by sharing with them the software developed by NIC (Headquarters)... The ATIs may play the role of catalyst in the implementation of the facility in the public authorities located in the state. Proposals in this regard are invited from ATIs and funds would be granted on the basis of such proposal," it said in a detailed guidelines for the grant.
A fund of up to Rs 3 lakh for celebration of RTI Week (October 5-12) and Rs 4 lakh for innovative awareness generation programme on the transparency law through street plays, folk groups, etc. has been earmarked by DoPT.
"Funds would be granted to Administrative Training Institutes based on their respective proposal subject to a maximum ceiling of Rs 4 lakh per annum in the first year which would include rental charges for a telephone line, computer system for data storage, salary for the person manning the helpline and stationery, etc.
"The grants for the subsequent years would be restricted to Rs 2 lakh per annum. Such helplines could be set up in collaboration with NGOs working in the field of RTI," it said.
The state governments are also being encouraged to improve record management and suo motu disclosure of information related to their working through financial grants proposed by it.
Besides, Rs 5 lakh (per case basis) will be given to states for carrying out field-based research on RTI and Rs 1 lakh for organising workshops and seminars on promotion of the transparency law.
The RTI Act, 2005, empowers the citizen to seek time bound response from a government department on governance matters.