Centre asks states to make public certain information about PDS and MNREGA
28 Nov, 2013
The Central government has passed an order asking the states to make public the information related to the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and the Public Distribution System (PDS). The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has also listed Panchayats and Primary and Secondary Education as the other deparemtns for which the states are expected to ensure proactive disclosure under Right to Information (RTI) Act. The order from DoPT outlines that the four areas have been selected as they provide the most significant services at ground level.
The order says that disclosure about PDS should go to the level of ration card holder rather than the present level of Fair Price Shops (FPS). The order directs the Panchayats to disclose information regarding village demography, sanitation, livestocks, monitoring committees on various schemes e.g. MNREGA, etc. In case of FPS, the proactive disclosure should have details of procedure for applying ration cards under various categories, entitlement, complaints register, helpline number and vigilance committees.
The DoPT order states that the purpose of proactive disclosure is to place huge amount of information in public domain to ensure transparency and to reduce the number of RTI applications.