AP FSL

CHAPTER 6

Position of RTI implementation in AP:

Tirupati: state Information Commissioner R. Dileep Reddy has expressed his displeasure over the lack of proper response from the various government departments in enforcing the Right to Information (RTI) act. During his surprise visit to a dozen departments in the town on Tuesday, he could hardly conceal his dismay over the `indifferent attitude’ of the departments even in displaying related circulars on notice boards of their respective office. At one stage he reportedly warned the officials concerned that they could be fined up to rs.25, 000 each for not displaying the circulars duly highlighting the 17 items on which public could seek Information from them under the RTI. According to officials who accompanied the Commissioner, the latter was particularly unhappy with the commercial taxes office, office of the executive engineer (roads and buildings) and the E.E. (irrigation).

Visakhapatnam: Jana Chaitanya Vedika on Sunday organised an elocution and essay writing competition on the role of Right to Information (RTI) act, 2005.

Vijayawada: the centre has taken up a pilot project in 24 districts across 12 states for effective implementation of the Right to Information act (RTI) by 2008, according to state Information Commissioner K. Sudhakar Rao. During his visit to several government offices in the city to examine the implementation of the act, Mr. Rao said that the centre and the United Nations Development Programme had selected Hyderabad-based Centre for Good Governance and pune-based Yashwanth Rao Chavan Academy of Development Administration as implementing agencies for the pilot project.

R2i.net portal launch

Training would be given to officials at the state and district level, representatives of civil society organisations and media persons to make them resource persons for better enforcement of the act. Besides, a portal called would be hosted, in addition to holding workshops and publishing booklets. Mr. Rao said both the centre and the state government were keen on implementing the act in its true spirit. The state Information commission had received 840 appeals so far, out of which 600 had been disposed of. He wanted the officials to try giving the Information sought before the stipulated time frame. If the Information sought was not immediately available, whatever was ready should be provided and the remaining be given later.

Mr. Rao visited the Vijayawada municipal corporation (VMC) and expressed satisfaction over the manner in which the act was being implemented in the civic body. He suggested that the VMC’S website be linked to the district portal. In response to a point made by town planning officials that people were seeking building plans and layouts, Mr. Rao suggested that they be displayed at the public libraries and other offices. The Commissioner also visited the offices of VGTM-UDA, divisional forest officer, superintending engineer of irrigation, executive engineer of irrigation and deputy transport Commissioner. Mr. Rao made no secret of his displeasure over the implementation of the act when he paid a surprise visit on the office of deputy education officer. He wanted the manuals to be prepared in 15 days.

Hyderabad: private institutions that are “substantially-funded” by the government and those governed by Indian laws are also liable to be covered under the Right to Information (RTI) act, according to chief Information Commissioner, Government of India, Wajahat Habibullah. Inaugurating a workshop on `Right to Information ’ organised by the academic staff college of the university of Hyderabad on Monday, he described the RTI act as one of the most radical pieces of legislation even if comparisons were drawn with matured democracies. He said that the implementation of the act depended upon whether people wanted good governance and were ready to participate in the process of governance. At the same time, the RTI should not be an instrument of humiliating the government. Mr. Habibullah said enormous amount of awareness was needed across the country on the act and how to use it, as very few people made use of its provisions. He said the official secrets act had always been undemocratic and draconian and the RTI act would rectify these shortcomings. Answering a question from the audience about reports of dilution of the RTI provisions, he said that the commission was only concerned with what the parliament had passed. State chief Information Commissioner C.D. Arha said it was important for government employees not to view the RTI act as an adverse legislation that would affect their interests or functioning. “The act is pro-development”, he added.

Tirupati: the top brass of Sri Venkateswara University is in a fix over providing Information to an employee, who is presently under suspension. The vacillation on the issue has landed registrar N. Prabhakar Rao in trouble as the Information Commissioner has issued summons asking him to appear before the commission on July 28. The authorities would have had the last word under normal circumstances, but university engineer Ravi Shankar, who is presently under suspension, sought vital Information under Right to Information act. The details pertained mostly to the alleged irregularities in his very department. When the university did not act, he moved the appellate authority, who is the vice-chancellor himself. When there was still no action, he moved the Information Commissioner, who ultimately issued summons.

Karimnagar: state Information Commissioners R Dileep Reddy and A Subba Rao had said that they will conduct review meetings in selected revenue divisions in the next three to four months about the implementation of Right to Information act.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, the Information Commissioner s have said that they had already reviewed the implementation of Right to Information act in all the 23 districts and observed that there was awareness among the urban public about the act. Stressing on the need to spread the message of the act to grassroot level, they said that they will play a proactive role for the implementation of the Right to Information act.

The commission was taking all necessary steps to compile petitions received from the people and submit an annual report to the state assembly by November this year. The commission was constituted in the month of November, 2005 but the Right to Information act has been implemented in the state from October 12 onwards.

The Commissioner s urged the people to pressurize officials to extract the necessary Information required under the act. If the officials failed to provide information, the people could approach the commission for redressal of grievance. Earlier, at a review meeting with the district officials they had instructed the authorities to prepare manuals, in Telugu also, under the Right to Information act by august 15. .

According to Chief Information Commissioner CD Arha, “the implementation of RTI in some offices is extremely satisfactory,” but not so in others. The RTI act is now being implemented across the state and all administrative offices have designated public Information officers, as mandated in the act. While the act came into force in September 2005, the government was able to provide the required machinery, including the appellate state commission, only by November 2005. The government has also enacted legislation making it mandatory for the administration to provide Information online.

The real transformation has to come from officialdom, by accepting the need for a paradigm shift in their working. Interestingly, a large chunk of the applications (about 80%) received are from within the establishment, seeking to know about promotion files, allotment of office quarters and sundry other personal issues among officials. “This is my greatest concern,” says Arha. Though the applications are legitimate and they have a right to this information, the RTI act has to be extensively used by the general public, he felt.

On the other hand, Jayaprakash Narayan, national coordinator, Lok Satta, which initiated an extensive campaign—including TV capsules, radio spots and other communication channels — to bring awareness and educate the public about the RTI before it become an act, says he is distressed at the lack of proper implementation. According to him, while the act clearly says that almost 95% of the Information should be in the public domain and some others on demand, it is not happening in the state. “Pro-active Information disclosure is not happening.”

According to an official, another type of Information being sought by some members of the public is on land records, especially in the wake of a sudden jump in land prices all over. But the departments concerned are in a fix, being unable to furnish Information within the stipulated 30 days, as records are scattered in different locations and are also in bad physical condition.

Narayan says it should now be the efforts of the government and not that of civil society groups, to implement the RTI act in spirit. He rues that at the moment it is legal-centric rather than citizen-centric. Also, people do not know where many of the departments are. So, there is an urgent need for a ‘single window’ where citizens can approach for processing the requests. The government also needs to make a uniform format and also communicate it to the public extensively through the media, which should do it as a

Narasaraopet: state Information Commissioner Dilip reddy has expressed dissatisfaction over the implementation of the Right to Information act in government offices at chilakaluripet and narasaraopet towns. However, he made an exception to the municipal offices. Dilip reddy, who was on a visit to the town on Saturday, went round different government offices in narasaraopet and chilakaluripet and reviewed implementation of the act. While he was making surprise checks in the town, the Commissioner had irksome experience at DSP office. Met by DSP B H Pridhvinarayana, dilip reddy posed some questions about the manual, which denotes officers’ duties and responsibilities, and also provisions of section 4/b of the act, the former cut a sorry face. However, DSP conveyed his regrets and assured to study the act thoroughly. Dilip reddy instructed all officials to display basic provisions of the act in Telugu in their respective offices.

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CHAPTER 7

Forensics science lab and RTI

The different stake holders would be:

The courts who send case material to the FSL.

The forensic medicine that send us samples taken from dead bodies and others.

The accused and their lawyers.

The state and its prosecution lawyers.

Authorities competent to forward physical evidence to forensic science laboratory

8- A Judiciary

Judicial officers of the courts in Andhra Pradesh

Judicial officers of the courts in other states in exceptional cases.

Special officers of judicial commissions, inquiries and other state government officers holding judicial, quasi-judicial functions like A.P. Administrative Tribunal, A.P. Industrial Tribunal Etc.

B. Police

ü Officers of the state police departments of the rank of sub divisional police officer and above.

ü Officers of other states and Central government police establishments in exceptional cases.

B. Revenue

Revenue officers of A.P. State Government, discharging ex-officio functions of magistrates such as collector and district magistrate, RDO and Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Mandal Revenue Officer and Executive Magistrate.

D. Government departments

Officers’ in-charge of state government departments in Hyderabad and other district headquarters holding the rank of Dy. Superintendent of police or above. This includes officers of the above rank and in- charge of co-operative societies and other government bodies and government undertakings. In exceptional cases, Central government cases and cases from other state governments will also be accepted.

E. Medical officers of the rank of asst. Professors and above of the AP Medical and Health Department.

F. Other officers of

Banks.

Financial institutions.

Industrial organisations.

Other institutions or individuals at the discretion of the director/DGP.

People who demand info can be categorized as under:

NGO

Women associations

Women’s commission

Civil liberties

Human rights bodies/ commissions

Print and electronic media

SC/ST/BC/Minority commission

Individual public

Lawyers

Private investigators

Public and private associations

Film industry

Types of cases undertaken by the FSL can be classified as under:

Paid cases – private parties

Cases received from state

Cases received from other states

Cases received from other Govt agencies

Documents held in the control of the FSL are divided into two categories:

Technical

Administrative

Administrative documents are on par with all other offices and would be dealt with in a similar manner and pro active disclosure for public is necessary both in the manual form and in web page or in electronic form.

Technical documents would need to be examined with reference to exemptions listed out due to their nature of affecting the life and liberty of different people and the sub judicious nature of the proceedings which they relate to:

Section wise

13 sections

Obligations of FSL as public authorities:

Sec 4(1) (a): technical, administrative items.

Admin:

All personal files, ACRs, annual property returns, IT form 16, of all employees to be maintained for easy retrieval in a computerized system.

Proactive disclosure:

Organisation chart,

functions , duties, decision making power,

channels of supervision, accountability,

subordinate rules, service rules, conduct rules, financial codes, treasury codes, pension rules, pay fixation rules and details,

directory of all offices and employees, their salaries, allowances,

budget , proposed expenditure,

reports on disbursement,

Designation of PIO, APIO even in RFSL.

Update the publications every year.

Create and maintain a web site

Design template and guidelines for achieving uniformity among public authorities in their publications and easy access to information to citizens.

Suo moto [4(1)(b)] disclosure: sec 4(2), 4(3), 4(4)

Cost effective local language and most effective method of communication.

Sec 4(4): ensure availability of information with PIO as the PIO are required to provide information to the applicants within 30 days.

A robust MIS needs to be setup and got running at the earliest in a networked environment covering all labs under the public authority. To develop standard online systems like HR MIS, financial MIS, project MIS, performance MIS.

For proper tracking system in MIS which should include : no of request for information of different kinds, type and manner of information provided, fees collected grounds for denial of information, whether any appeals were preferred to appellate officer, decision on appeals, action taken on those decisions.

Technical records:

Documents and files

Items of physical items and samples.

Segregation, categorization, indexing preferably online and real time basis of files based on status of the case. Like received, taken up for exam, where report is completed, where property disposed off, cases which are more than 20 years old.

The technical records consist of the following classes:

a) Case property and

b) documents that accompany case property and

c) Documents generated in the lab during the course of investigation procedures and analysis.

i) case registration acknowledgement receipts

ii) description of the items received – as noted by the scientist

iii) observation and notings by the scientist during the analysis under the supervision/ guidance of AD

iv) file notings incidental to the examination and testing procedures

v) final observations of the scientist

vi) draft reports

vii) Final reports duly signed by the scientist, AD, JD and other forwarding authorities as per the lab hierarchy.

The detailed document flow is given in A P Police Manual. Order 549 volume 2 parts 1.

List of documents to be sent along with physical evidence

Depending upon the nature of physical evidence forwarded, the following documents should be sent along with the covering letter.

A. Forwarding letter/authorisation letter of competent authorities. (Order-8)
B. Letter of advice from investigating officers.
C. Doctor’s report (post-mortem examination) in toxicology cases, medical examination report of victim and accused (if arrested) in rape and serology cases.
D. Confessional statements of suspects/accused, statements of witnesses, etc., in polygraph cases.
E. Inquest/panchanama copies in toxicology cases.
F. Fir copies where desirable.
G. Sample seal on a sheet of paper, or on forwarding letter/letter of advice.
H. Any other document relevant for examination.

Charges for Private cases:

In order to make the facilities and expertise available in APFSL to the public, in civil matters, it has been decided to extend these services in genuine cases by levying/collecting user charges to meet the analytical expenses. The following services are available for public on payment of fees indicated.vide G.o.ms.no. 170 fins. & plg. (Fw: b4) dept., dated 23-4-2001

The cases done for fees lie under the exemption of fiduciary relationship and need not be disclosed.

DISCLAIMER:

The suggested action with regard to disclosure, exemption or otherwise given in the tables hereunder are only suggestive as the name indicates and do not indicate any official position or recommendation. It is meant to initiate discussion and generate consensus in the workshop only as a working arrangement.

Categorization of documents held by FSL for disclosure purposes: