Make staff transfer, posting information public: Centre to departments

NEW DELHI: The information related to employees' transfer and posting should be put in public domain promptly to reduce the number of RTI applications, the Centre said today.

The Department of Personnel and Training ( DoPT) has written to all central government ministries asking them to comply with Section 4 of the Right to Information (RTI) Act and suo motu disclose all governance related information in public domain.

"Access to information should be made user-friendly for which appropriate information technology infrastructure should be suitable designed, developed and operationalised," it said.

The DoPT has also asked the public authorities with high public dealings to put in place an effective system to redress grievances of affected persons, in order to minimise the burden of servicing RTI applications.

"In order to reduce the number of RTI applications relating to service matters, the information relating to recruitment, promotion and transfers should be brought into public domain promptly," it said.

The direction comes following a recommendation of a committee of experts to further strengthen implementation of suo motu disclosure of information under the transparency law by central government departments.

The departments have been also asked to incorporate matters relating to the virtues of transparency, open government and RTI law in their training modules for professional upgradation of employees.

"The retention and maintenance of specified documents for specified duration should be clearly spelt by each public authority in respect of its documents," the communique said.

The RTI Act guarantees time-bound response to citizens' grievance on governance matters.