While people have rightly been held in thrall by the releases of Wikileaks, I would like to shed light and comment upon one of the most innovative modes to promote proactive disclosure, as required under the Right to Information law in India. The village is called Malav in the Kalol District of Gujarat, and the sarpanch (head of the village council) has decided to paint the walls of the Panchayat (village council office) so that, "Most of the wall paintings contain crucial information about the development schemes and finances, which can be accessed even when the office of the panchayat remains closed as they have been painted on its outer walls."
This unique model of proactive disclosure goes a long way to meet the requirement of the RTI Act, both in letter and spirit of the law. The law calls for a proactive disclosure of information, wherein public authorities are required, under Section 4 (2), (3) & (4), to 'provide as much information suo moto to the public' and utilize various means to disseminate information, taking into consideration the particular circumstances of a local area.
On the other hand, Bihar, a State which ranks quite low on development indicators among all states in India, has adopted a unique method to assist the public to request information from public bodies. The State government has launched the Jaankari (inquiry/query) which is a call centre that takes calls from public, transcribes their requests for information, and submits the application to the concerned department. The information gathered is then relayed to the requester, over the phone, and the call centre also assists the public to appeal, in situations where the demand for information is not met. This experiment goes a long way to meet the requirement of Section 6 of the RTI Act, wherein the Information Officers, are required to provide assistance to applicants, if necessary.
These success stories show the potential for the RTI Act in India to make a difference, which has been termed as a second independence moment.
