Put information on MGNREGA, PDS in public domain: Centre to states

NEW DELHI: The Centre today asked state governments to put all information related to implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Public Distribution System in public domain.

It has also asked states to ensure proactive disclosure under Right to Information (RTI) Act of information on public works done by a department at block and panchayat levels.

Section 4 of the RTI Act, 2005 lays down that information should be disclosed by public authorities on a suo motu or proactive basis.

The purpose of disclosure is to place large amount of information in public domain on a proactive basis to make the functioning of the public authorities more transparent and also to reduce the need for filing individual RTI applications, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) today wrote to state governments.

A task force was constituted in May 2011 by the Centre to improve suo motu disclosure under the transparency law.

Detailed guidelines on proactive disclosure were sent to states through the letter written by Secretary, DoPT - a nodal authority for implementation of the RTI Act.

"The task force also recommended guidelines for disclosure by state governments along with templates for disclosure at various levels. Illustrative templates have been recommended for disclosure under PDS, Panchayats, MGNREGA and primary and secondary schools...

"You are requested to consider issuing above guidelines and templates for better implementation of the suo motu disclosure at state level," the letter by DoPT Secretary S K Sarkar said.