The Central government has asked all States to make suo motu disclosure of their transfer policies for different grades and cadre of employees serving in various government departments.
This was among fresh guidelines issued for implementation of Right to Information Act by including some more items for suo motu or pro-active disclosure by public authorities under the Act. Already, a large amount of information relating to functioning of public bodies is put in public domain through web-based disclosures suo motu. In addition, the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions has recently addressed letters to Chief Secretaries of all States to ensure that public authorities may pro-actively disclose some more items under the suo motu disclosure provisions of Section 4 of RTI Act.
They include posting on the websites all transfer orders of employees but the norm was not applicable in cases of transfer made keeping in view sovereignty, integrity, security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of State. It would also not apply to security and intelligence agencies.
Keeping in view the technical nature of government budgets, the Centre asked the State governments to see that the departments prepare simplified versions of the budgets which can be understood by general public and put in public domain. Budgets and their periodic monitoring reports may also be presented in a more user-friendly manner through graphs and tables.
All grants to State governments, NGOs and other institutions by various Central government agencies should be placed on the website of the concerned Ministries or departments.
Public authorities should pro-actively disclose RTI applications and appeals received and responses to them on their websites with search facility based on key words. RTI applications and appeals received and their responses relating to personal information of individuals may not be disclosed as it did not serve any public interest.
Websites should contain entitlements to citizens and transactions between the citizens and governments from the point of origin to point of delivery. Information about procurement by public authorities through contracts and public-private partnerships, including detailed project reports and concession agreements should also be posted.
