What information a public authority (office/legislature/court/NGO) should disclose voluntarily (pro active disclosure or suo moto) on its own (even without asking by any applicant) in then notice board/website/publications ?

Under Section 4(1 )(b) every public authority shall publish by 12lh October 2005 (within 121 days of the enactment) 17 categories of information in the form of an Information Handbook -

(i)      the particulars of its organisation, functions and duties ;         

(ii)     the powers and duties of its officers and employees ;

(iii)    the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability ;

(iv)    the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions ;

(v)     the rules, regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its control or used by its employees for discharging its functions ;

(vi)    a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control ;

vii)   the particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or representation by,      the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation thereof ;

(viii) a statement of the boards, councils, committees and other bodies consisting of two or more persons constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advice, and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public ;

 (ix)    a directory of its officers and employees ;

(x)     the monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations ;

xi)    The budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made ;

(xii)   the manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and the details of beneficiaries of such programmes ,

(xiii) particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorisations granted by it ;

(xiv) details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic form ;

(xv)   the particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use ;

(xvi) the names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers ;

(xvii) such other information as may be prescribed ; and thereafter update these publications every year.

A model template of the information handbook is available at www.righttoinformation.gov.in

The RTI Act envisages that the public authorities publish and widely disseminate the proactive disclosure information in local language, besides at their website and notice board. For seeking the said information no application and no fees is required and should be available instantly. In other words one can not be asked to wait for 30 days or any other time limit for the said information. Inspection of the said information is free ; and for copies, a citizen is charged for the print or medium cost only, as prescribed.

First Appellate Authority : e-mail: mdatdc@gmail.com

State Public Information Officer: Smti Noor Hasina Begum, Sr. Manager, ATDC Ltd., M: +91 9706706726, e-mail: noorbegum2014@gmail.com