The
Right to Information Act 2005 came into force on 21st June 2005. All public
sector institutions, constituted by an Act of Parliament or owned and
controlled by the Government are Public authorities within the meaning of the above
Act and are required to comply with the provisions of the Act. Certain parts of
the Act have come into force with immediate effect. All the public authorities
are required to take certain steps within 120 days from the date of
commencement of the Act. One such requirement is that the Public authority has
to publish following particulars about the organisation:
Ø Particulars
of organisation, functions and duties;
Ø Powers
and duties of its officers and employees;
Ø Procedure
followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and
accountability;
Ø Norms
set by it for the discharge of its functions;
Ø Rules,
regulations, instructions, manuals and records, held by it or under its control
or used by its employees for discharging its functions;
Ø Statement
of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control;
Ø 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;
Ø 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 advise, 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;
Ø Directory
of its officers and employees;
Ø Monthly
remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the
system of compensation as provided in its regulations;
Ø Budget
allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans,
proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made;
Ø The
manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and
the details of beneficiaries of such programmes;
Ø Particulars
of recipients of concessions, permits or authorizations granted by it;
Ø 
Details in
respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic form;
Details in
respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic form;
Ø Particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining
information, including the working hours of a library or reading room, if maintained for public use;
Ø Names, designations and other particulars of
the Public Information Officers;
Ø Such other information as may be prescribed;
and thereafter update these publications
every year;
Ø Publish all relevant facts while formulating
important policies or announcing the decisions which affect public;
Ø Provide reasons for its administrative or
quasi judicial decisions to affected persons.
The Act also requires every public authority
to designate Central Public Information
Officers in all administrative units or offices under it as may be necessary to provide information to persons requesting
for information under this Act.
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