Gujarat: 11 out of 27 govt depts have not submitted PAD certificates

Gandhinagar: In spite of a Supreme Court order and several circulars from the state's general administration department (GAD), 11 of the 27 state govt departments have not submitted proactive disclosure (PAD) certificates. Information sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act further states that less than 1% of public authorities — only 75 of the 11,883 — have provided PAD certificates.All govt departments and all public authorities are required to make proactive disclosures of basic details and data of their respective departments and scope of work, so that elementary information need not be obtained by filing RTI applications. According to a GAD circular dated July 17, 2019, heads of all districts and civic bodies along with boards and corporations must provide certificates of PAD to their respective department, and each department must provide its certificate to the GAD. "If an RTI cell has been set up in the GAD, then it should have consolidated data of PAD certificates. We had to file two appeals after making an RTI application for this data, and information was provided only after the second appeal made in the commission," said RTI applicant Alpesh Bhavsar. Bhavsar said that information received from the GAD after the second appeal said that only 16 departments have updated PAD, and GAD had no information available regarding the remaining 11 departments. "Interestingly, the GAD, which is responsible for monitoring implementation of PAD and has issued 17 circulars for the same, has not updated its own PAD," Bhavsari said. Bhavsar said that according to the information received through RTI, there are a total of 11,883 public authorities in the state, and it appears that only 75 public authorities have submitted certificates as per the GAD circular. "Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act, which deals with proactive disclosures, and circulars of the Union DoPT ministry are being violated in a big way in Gujarat," Bhavsar claimed. Pankti Jog, convener of Mahiti Adhikar Pahel Gujarat (MAPG), said a Supreme Court order clearly states that the information commission is expected to ensure that PAD certificates are submitted. "In this background, it was expected that the Gujarat information commission (GIC) should have directed the GAD to ensure implementation of the circular. It is disappointing that GIC has not made GAD accountable in its order. PADs are the heart of the RTI Act. It is unfortunate that GIC is not taking adequate steps to ensure its implementation," she said.
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