Central Monitoring Mechanism for RTI compliance

The Orissa government has put in place a Central Monitoring Mechanism (CMM) for better compliance of the Right to Information (RTI) Act in Orissa.

The state information and public relations (I&PR) department has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Luminous Infoways, a content service provider and the national portal of the government of India.

The introduction of information technology is expected to remove much of the difficulties in successful compliance of the RTI act by public authorities.

The chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy has instructed the I & PR department (the nodal department for RTI act) to intimate all public authorities to adopt this procedure on war footing.

Meanwhile, the nodal department has initiated steps to replicate the 'Jankari' project implemented by the government of Bihar, which has been adjudged as the best in the country.

P K Mohapatra, secretary, I&PR department and nodal officer (RTI) has prepared a study report on this project with further modifications to accommodate the state specific features. The chief secretary reviewed the implementation of the RTI act in Orissa.

With a view to expedite the implementation of the RTI act, it was decided, all the departments will submit their monthly report pertaining to the compliance of the RTI with the I&PR department by the last day of every month. Similarly, the annual report will be submitted by end of May every year.

All the state government employees will be provided with the Oriya translation of the RTI act.

Besides, the departments which have not completed the process of appointing Public Information Officer (PIO) were instructed to complete the process soon. The state information commissioner Jagadananda and the senior officials of the state government were present in the meeting.