Five govt offices violate RTI act: Survey
Gross violation of Right to Information (RTI) Act and neglects and the narrow mindedness of officials to expose information still hinder the law's implementation at five government organisations in Rajshahi, reveals a survey.
Only Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, out of the five organisations, provided information duly, as the concerned officials were trained on the law that came to effect in July 2009, says the survey.
Rajshahi City Corporation, Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, the district Land Office, and Primary Education Office are the remaining organisations surveyed.
Rajshahi unit of Shacheton Nagorik Committee (Shonac), an organisation run by Transparency International of Bangladesh (TIB), published the report at a press conference at its office in Rajshahi city yesterday.
It said Shonac's Youth Engagement and Support (YES) group members conducted the survey in between August 26 and October 6, with their personal identities as citizens of the country.
''Actually we wanted to know how much has been achieved in proper information flow at government level after one year of enactment of the law'', said Abdus Salam, the Shonac unit convener.
He said the survey findings will be shared with respective organisations for their necessary corrections.
The survey says at least three of the organisations declined even to receive the application form of information seekers, which is a sheer neglect to the RTI Act.
The applicants were harassed when their applications ran from table to table in four organizations, and they were confronted with various questions like ''what will you do with the information?''
One organisation denied providing information on plea of the month of Ramadan which the survey said a clear attitude to harass people in violation of RTI Act.
The survey finds none of the organizations have appointed any information officer that is mandatory and made available no application forms, although the law contains provisions for these to maintain.
Two organisations have officials assigned for providing information, one of them was not available in eight workdays and he provided incomplete information on the 17th day, says the survey.
Two organisaions declined to provide information, and they did not explain why they failed, which also violates the Act.
The survey recommended six points including shunning the culture of secrecy, appointing information officers, preserving information properly and digitalising the information providing system.
Banasri Haldar read out the report prepared by YES group team leader Saiful Islam.
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