This time it’s straight from the horse’s mouth. Statistics released by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) separately on budgetary allocation and awareness of Right to Information (RTI) raises questions on the government’s seriousness about the transparency law.

In 2009-2010, the government has spared only Rs 14.16 crore as budget for RTI, of which only Rs 3.55 crore has been spent till October 22, 2009. This is less than half the amount spent on RTI in 2008-2009, which was Rs 7.29 crore of a total budgetary allocation of Rs 10 crore.

The statistics were revealed in a reply by R K Girdhar, Under Secretary with the department on October 22, 2009, to an RTI query from applicant S C Agarwal.

The figures gel with the grim picture painted by R K Sarkar, Deputy Secretary with DoPT, about the ground realities during his presentation during the fourth annual convention on ‘Strengthening the RTI’ held recently. Sarkar had said that only 12 per cent women and 26 per cent men across the country were even “aware” of the RTI law.

“Only 13 per cent rural people and 33 per cent of the urban population have benefited from RTI awareness campaigns,” he had said before a gathering of over 50 Information Commissioners.

Compare Sarkar’s words with that of his colleague, Girdhar, who says: “Under the centrally sponsored scheme, ‘Strengthening, Capacity Building and Awareness Generation for Effective Implementation of the RTI Act’, funds to the tune of Rs 4.76 crore have been released to the State Information Commissions and Rs 4.10 crore released to the Administrative Training Institutes for awareness campaigns and development of printing material, etc, in regional languages.”

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