[Assam] RTI petition
umesh sharma
jaipurschool at yahoo.com
Fri Jul 27 12:14:13 PDT 2007
anyone?
Umesh
"Sirish" @gmail.com> wrote: To: "asha-dc-core at yahoogroups.com" <asha-dc-core at yahoogroups.com>
From: Sirish.
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:47:37 -0400
Subject: [asha-dc-core] Fwd: Publicize Widely: Save Indian democracy's transparency in the USA
www.ashanet.org/dc
Consider signing the petition and do circulate this note to your friends.
Thanks,
Sirish
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ravi Kuchimanchi <khiyali at gmail.com>
Date: Jul 27, 2007 11:46 AM
Subject: Publicize Widely: Save Indian democracy's transparency in the USA
Save Indian democracy's transparency in the USA
Sign petition to Indian Ambassador in Washington DC.
Indian embassy in Washington DC is not implementing the Right to Information (RTI) Act properly. This effects NRI who hold Indian passports and have rights under RTI Act of India. The Indian embassy began implementing this Act when volunteers of AID as well as NRIs filed RTI applications and after the Central Information Commission in New Delhi gave enabling decisions. However there are lot of gaps in implementation and this online petition to Ambassador is to help save the RTI Act's implementation in the USA.
Embassy is not transferring applications to India but asking people to reapply in India.
The Consulate General of India offices in San Francisco, Chicago etc do not have PIOs/APIOs assigned under RTI.
Click and Sign petition to save Indian Democracy's transparency in USA.
Please visit http://aidindia.org to learn more about the issue and to sign the petition. Petition also available at: http://petitions.aidindia.org/embassy
Thank you,
AID volunteers
For more information
1.RTI Website
2.Section 6(3) of RTI ACT
3.Indian embassy's RTI website
4.CIC decision on applicability of Section 6(3) to Lt Governor of Delhi
27th July, 2007
TO:
Mr. Ronen Sen
Ambassador, Embassy of India,
Washington D.C.- 20008
Phone: (202) 939-7000
Dear Ambassador of people of India,
As you might know, in order to increase transparency of governance and provide citizens with a much needed tool to fight corruption, the Indian democracy has enacted the "Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005". Non Resident Indians who hold Indian passports have an equal right to this information, and the Indian embassy in Washington DC has recently begun to accept RTI applications. This has come about due to several NRIs applying to seek information from the Indian government as well as favorable decisions by the Central Information Commission (CIC) in New Delhi that has ordered all Indian embassies around the world to implement the RTI Act.
However the Indian Embassy in DC is violating the important Section 6(3) of the RTI Actthat states without any ambiguity that if an application for information is received that pertains to another public authority, then within 5 days, the Public Information Officer (at the embassy) should transfer the application to the relevant public authority. This section is important for NRIs who have applied or may apply in future to the embassy for information that may not be directly available with the embassy, such as the status of family pension or information pertaining to a project or a disaster in India. The Public Information Officer at the Embassy in DC is not transferring such applications to the relevant public authority in India and is asking applicants to reapply.
The bureaucratic mentality that makes the citizen of India run around different offices for any information that they need, is precisely what India's RTI Act aims to overthrow. It is shocking that on its website, the Embassy in DC has taken the spurious position of not implementing section 6(3) of the Act for applications that pertain to information that the embassy does not itself hold. It is precisely such applications that the Act mandates are to be transferred to the appropriate public authority.
There is ample precedent for transferring information as per Section 6(3) of the act. For example in its ruling CIC/WB/C/2006/00159 the Central Information Commission, stated that the office of Lt Governor of Delhi "clearly failed in transferring the application to the appropriate authority as contained u/s 6 (3) of the Act." This was an application received by the Lt Governor (LG) for information held by public authority at the Dept of Industries. The CIC ruled that the "application in question required to be transferred to the concerned PIO as per the provision of the Act." and warned "the office of LG is cautioned that it observe the mandated processes as contained in the Act u/s 6 (3) more scrupulously."
We call on you to instruct the PIO at the Indian embassy to follow Section 6(3) of the RTI law in letter and in spirit, and transfer all applications to relevant public authority, whenever they pertain to information not held by the embassy. We need not remind you that salaries of all Indian government officials including those at the embassy, are paid by money collected from Indian citizens and they should not shrug their responsibility to do the necessary work.
Many NRIs based in the west coast and mid-west are also concerned that the RTI Act is still to be implemented by the Consulate General of India offices in San Francisco, Chicago etc. Please assign Public Information Officers and Assistant Public Information Officers in these locations, as per Sections 5(1) and 5(2) of the RTI Act.
We urge you to do the needful to save Indian democracy's transparency in the USA. We hope to hear your response soon.
Sincerely
Click http://petitions.aidindia.org/embassy or http://aidindia.org to sign petition.
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Umesh Sharma
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Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
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http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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Umesh Sharma
Washington D.C.
1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used )
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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