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A new bridge tour bus service for common citizens.

Photo courtesy: www.abhijitsplanet.com

For most of us who have been having difficulty understanding the intricacies of the law, here is a simplified version.

Please download from here and forward this page to all your friends.

Jai Hind

For more info on what is omitted and what is included, please go through the email that I received from my friend Krish who is a Loksatta activist in India.

The Right to Information Act 2005 has nearly 10,800 words in over 31 sections, and very complicated sentences. Most of it does not concern the RTI applicant or appellant, and can be safely omitted.

Download SIMPLIFIED & ABRIDGED VERSION: http://www.box.net/shared/n6ovb3944c

This abridged version has less than 4,300 words, and most sentences are simplified. Everything needed by RTI activists and common people 99% of the times is in it. Important parts for information-seekers – both applicants and appellants — are highlighted to assist the common man.

PLEASE FORWARD TO FRIENDS… They will thank you for helping them clearly understand the RTI Act.

WHAT IS OMITTED? Most of the words in the RTI Act are:

(a) For explaining the rationale of the RTI Act (eg. Preamble of the Act)

(b) Repetitive phrases like “Central Public Information Officer or a State Public Information Officer, as the case may be” are replaced with “PIO”. Similarly, “Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be” are replaced with “Information Commission”.

(c) Sections concerning the appointment of PIOs, terms of service of SICs, CICs and other administrative details

(d) Legal expressions such as “without prejudice to,” “provided that” and “as the case may be” which make sentences difficult to understand.

FOR EXAMPLE, Section 5(2) states:

“Without prejudice to the provisions of sub-section (1), every public authority shall designate an officer, within one hundred days of the enactment of this Act, at each sub-divisional level or other sub-district level as a Central Assistant Public Information Officer or a State Assistant Public Information Officer, as the case may be, to receive the applications for information or appeals under this Act for forwarding the same forthwith to the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or senior officer specified under sub-section (1) of section 19 or the Central Information Commission or the State Information Commission, as the case may be:
Provided that where an application for information or appeal is given to a Central Assistant Public Information Officer or a State Assistant Public Information Officer, as the case may be, a period of five days shall be added in computing the period for response specified under sub-section (1) of section 7.”

THE USEFUL PART of Section 5(2) for INFORMATION-SEEKERS & RTI ACTIVISTS is: “… where an application for information or appeal is given to… Assistant PIO… a period of five days shall be added in computing the period for response specified under sub-section (1) of section 7.” ALL THE REST IS OMITTED.

Other sections are similarly dealt with in the simplified and abridged version. Experts who wish to critically analyze the method of omission or abridgement may also download this file: http://www.box.net/shared/cml9r2506i

Talking about higher education… even the recommendations made to the Knowledge Commission have not been implemented? Why does this happen?

The Indian society is a society of ideas. It is a society that has revered talk. In this society, articulation is mistaken for accomplishment. We are quite satisfied with our voice, with our writings. This is not a society that is focussed on execution.

Frankly, the problem is due to our caste system and the dominance of Brahmins in our society for long period. The Brahminical system said my job is to think of the higher worlds. My job is to think of connecting you people with God. I don’t want to do anything that has a relationship with the real world.

Now that is a problem that has played havoc with the Indian culture. So, here in this culture, if you do anything with your hands, it is considered less honourable that anything to do with your brain.

Here everybody wants to be an engineer, nobody wants to be a technician. So when a society does not value implementation, execution, what happens is you create more and more reports and nothing gets done.

For example, (Reliance Industries Chairman) Mr Mukesh Ambani and I gave two reports on how to improve the higher education system: one to (then prime minister) Mr Vajpayee and one to Dr Manmohan Singh.

Second, there has been the Knowledge Commission. Nothing has happened. Third, in 1998 I was a member of the IT Task Force — which was headed by Mr Jaswant Singh — and that task force submitted its report somewhere in 1999 0r 2000.

Nine years and I don’t think even one suggestion has been implemented. And we made 108 suggestions! So that is why I am not a big fan of ideas in India.

My brother-in-law is a famous professor of physics at Caltech and he tells me it is very easy to come out with an idea. But to validate that idea he and his doctoral students will have to work hard for six months, one year… sometimes two years. That takes 20 hours of work each day for two years. So it is important to come out with new ideas, but it is even more important to execute them.

We are not a nation of doers; we are a nation which believes that our articulation is our accomplishment.

Click to find out who spoke this bitter truth.

A quote from an interview with Arun Bhatia, a Lok Rakshak Party candidate.

Q: But you are fighting an election from the plank of honesty, so scrutiny on this count is bound to be high.

A: Of course, I have to fight that. I have to fight corruption. I have to defeat the big guys. I have to defeat Sakal. I have to tell them I am better than Sharad Pawar. I am better than Sonia Gandhi. Who the hell is she? She comes from Italy, interviews five farmers and says I will make my son prime minister. I am better than all of them.

Complete interview

I would obviously vote for Gol Gumbaz