Public Awareness of Right to Information Act: A Study

Dr. R.P. Saharia

Assistant Professor in Economics, Govt. J.M.P. College, Takhatpur, Bilaspur (C.G.)

ABSTRACT:

INTRODUCTION:

"The Right to Information Act is playing a vital role in restructuring society. The Act came into effect from October 12, 2005. It covers the whole of India except the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Supreme Court recognized Right to know as a fundamental right. Accountability and transparency are the bedrock of democracy. India being largest > democracy in the world has more and more responsibility to realize people is expectations. Yet the common man could not get the informations, he needs for various reasons. The act ensures legal right to receive.

The word "information” is derived from the Latin world 'Informare' which was used on English from at least the 14^thcentury,, but gained its current spelling only in the 16^lh century. According to Oxford dictionary the right to information brought great impact on the Indian Administration as well as on Indian society for social change. The increase in the population at present in India has reached to 110 crores. So equality in participation and keeping people active is more important. Therefore, what is and what can be possible regarding the role of “The Right to Information" in achieving of justice and equality is significant and this is what that is highlighted in the present paper.

The main task to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority. The constitution of central information are established for this purpose.

The transparencies of information which are vital to its functioning also contain corruption to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed.

The advancement of new technology may bring long term benefits to the society. Right to information is a very important boon and innovative for active democracy.

The Act mainly deals with:

All the citizens shall have the right to information accessible under this Act, the control of any public authority-

(1) Inspection of work documents and records.

(2) Taking Notes, certified copies of documents.

(3) Obtaining information in the form of disk floppies, tapes, video cassettes (or) in any other electronic mode (or) through printout, where such information is stored in a computer (or) in any other device.

The Act does not deal with: (1) Central Bureau of Investigation reports, security organization specified in the second schedule being organization established by the Central Government (or) any information furnished through such organization to the Government. (2) The information pertaining to the allegations of corruption and human rights violations shall not be excluded under this sub section.

OBJECTIVES:

1) To know about the public awareness with regard to RTI.

2) To examine RTI an important innovative for active democracy.

3) To study the transparency, accountability, and administrative activism towards development in Bilaspur district.

HYPOTHESIS:

The following, hypothesis are framed -

a) Transparency and accountability in administration leads to social justice and equality,

b) There is free flow of link between community and public administration,

c) RTI enhances people to take active part of participatory democracy and check the miss deeds in state to present corruption

METHODOLOGY:

This study is based on the primary data collection from 120 respondents in Bilaspur. District The 120 respondents are classified in terms of sex, location, educational background, and income level of people. The sample respondents were selected by random sample. The survey covered 04 Tehsils of Bilaspur District, Bilaspur, Bilha, Kota, Takhatpur where in 30 respondents were selected from each Tehsil.

ANALYSIS:

It is observed that sizeable number of high income group and middle income group know about RTIA, where as low income group respondents are not aware of it. Some respondents did not respond and they were of the view that act is of no use. It has not reduced the corruption; instead they were forced to pay the bribes to government authorities to collect the documents. The survey also revealed that rural woman are not aware of RTIA and urban woman are quiet aware of it.

Four variables were taken for interaction with respondents based on sex, location, educational background and family income. The people belonging to same gender in different locations have given different views about RTIA. Similarly high income group respondents know very well and they have been able to take the benefits of this Act besides, are lower income level of respondents kept busy and engaged in agricultural activities. They are not so aware of this Act. This Act has given really vast powers to the people but still people are lagging behind to use the act as they don't have sufficient knowledge about it.

Some of the respondents expressed that changes are expected when the officers serving in the district since the last 5 to 10 years are transferred. They also feel that use of computers will solve the problems to some extent. It was common complain that the officers are acting in favour of middle class and politically backed community. When asked about corrupt practices in the district, about 6% of respondents expressed that corruption cannot be stopped, 45 % of the respondents expressed procedures in administration should be changed and 40 % of the respondents said that corrupt practices should be curbed down immediately.

RTI has become a boon for the present society to protect their rights and to control the police atrocities. So society and citizens have to protect themselves and form good governance. The value of democracy increased with the modernization and computerization of departments in public administration. Human being always expects changes and developments, but democratic administration doesn't respond to the people. If the departmental administration cooperates with public for change, then people would be satisfied to some extent.

CONCLUSION:

The Right to Information Act brings balance between the people and their authority to get information about administration. The advancement of new technology may bring long term benefits to the society and improve the quality of administrative services. An awareness campaign is required to high light the feature of this Act through mass media, newspaper, and NGO. Application format should be supplied free of cost for rural people. To ensure that rural people mostly unaware of this Act. The successful implementation of this Act rests with sincere involvement of the people; so that they should be quiet aware of it. The socio economic activities have also increased the knowledge of the people and about exploitation and violation of human rights society, the accountability and service mentality of bureau crafts should be verified. The public administration is heart of the democracy, new procedures and policies should be implemented.

REFERENCES :

1- P.S.Kawatra – “Text Book of Information science.” A.P.H. Publication corporation. Ansari Road Dariya Ganj New Dehi.

2- Arun Roy – “A Fight To Right To known” Shankar singh, yojana, January 2007

3- The Government of India Reports, Cases, Papers, References.

4- Dipankar Sinha – “Public Communication Information Journal of Economics and Political weekly, Sept. 13, 1997.

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Received on 22.02.2012

Revised on 28.02.2012

Accepted on 10.03.2012