Proactive Disclosure

An important provision in the RTI Act mandates that all public authorities must maintain records that are duly catalogued and indexed in a manner that will allow them to be easily accessed by the public. All public authorities have to publish a document on self-disclosure within 120 days of the Act’s enactment. This document or manual must contain 17 points.

Demonstrating Models of Self Disclosure

• Samarthan and partner organizations helped Panchayats to adopt self disclosure guidelines, as prescribed in the RTI Act. In Madhya Pradesh, Panchayats disclosed Panchayat information to the gram Sabha members. In most of the Panchayats the information has been put on the walls of the Panchayat. The data is also being compiled in the form of a self disclosure document which the gram Sabha can access at any point of time. In Chhattisgarh, all 63 Panchayats of Rajnandgaon block of Rajnandgaon district have prepared the self disclosure manual. Samarthan also facilitated formation of self disclosure documents for the Rajnandgaon block office, ICDS department, Women and Child Department and Rajnandgaon municipality.

• In line with Section 4(1) of the Right to Information Act 2005, Proactive Disclosure of Samarthan has also been prepared over the given 17 Points. We are encouraging other civil society organizations to prepare similar documents. Such endeavour will help the civil society demand greater accountability from Public Authorities.