Put annual reports, beneficiaries' list on portals, dept officials told

Nawanshahr, May 14

State Information Commissioner Khushwant Singh on Friday directed officials of all government departments to proactively disclose information under Section 4 of the Right to Information Act, 2005.

Accompanied by Deputy Commissioner Navjot Pal Singh Randhawa, State Information Commissioner said under Section 4 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, the public authorities have to publish the information on websites of departments for the public at regular intervals voluntarily and not on the demand of the people.

He said the information, including annual reports, directory of public information officers, information of schemes, list of beneficiaries and others, should be put on websites of the departments. He asked the heads of various departments to develop a mechanism to disclose such details to the public to ensure transparent functioning. Singh said the commission would carry out the transparency record in the coming days to find out proactive disclosure of the information by the public authorities.|

The Commissioner also said all applications should be disposed of within the prescribed time limit of 30 days, and if there is any delay in giving the information on genuine ground, the applicant must be intimated by the department. He also reviewed the status of applications received under the RTI Act by various departments.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (G) Jasbir Singh, Assistant Commissioner Deepankar Garg and DRO Ajitpal Singh were among those others present.