CIC: As per Section 4, all CDPOs of ICDS project all over the country to voluntarily publish the month-wise expenditure incurred for functioning & maintenance of Anganwadi centres, names of the beneficiaries, details of benefits regularly on their website
11 Sep, 2018
ORDER
FACTS:
1. The appellant sought the names of all beneficiaries including pregnant and lactating women at Anganwadi Centre situated at Rudrasamudram village of Makthal Mandal of Mahaboobnagar District. Since there was no response from the public authorities, the appellant approached this Commission.
Decision :
2. Appellant in his second appeal stated:
“I filed an application before public information officer (u/RTI ACT -2005) child development project officer, ICDS project, Makthal Mandal of Mahaboobnagar District Dated: 12 June 2017 requesting to furnish attested copies of every monthly wise meeting conducted from the date of 1st January,2011 until 9th June 2017 at Anganwadi centre - II situated at Rudrasamudram Village of Makthal Mandal of the Mahboobnagar District enclosing Indian Posta! order value of Rs. 10/- bearing No. 34F 046124 herewith a copy of application by hand at their office at Makthal Mandal but they have written a letter to me after a delay on dated 07th July, 2017 later 25 days and send it by speed post on date 08th July, 2017 later 26 days from the date of filing an application requesting to pay Rs. 3000 towards receiving 1500 pages information two rupees each page but that the letter reached me by post and received on date 3rd July, 2017 after 31 days from the date of filing an application before public information officer according to the right to information Act 2005 shall be provided the information to the applicant with free of cost, where public information officer fails to provide requesting information within time prescribed under provisions of right to information act - 2005 However they have demanded to bear of same above mentioned cost for got requesting information, even though I have approached to their office personal every day from the date of receiving their letter to following their instructions but public information officer is not available at their office till the date of 23rd July, 2017 and also that they did not respond even repeated mobile call properly for the purpose of arrange requesting information. It is further submitted, 1st appeal is also filed before 1st appellate authority/ Project Director DW & CDA, ICDS Project of Mahaboobnagar on 31.07.2017 but that they did not taken any action as per guidelines laid down by government of India under Right to Information Act - 2005.
3. The Anganwadi centres were started by the Indian government in 1985 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services program to combat child hunger and malnutrition. They ensure antenatal and postnatal care for pregnant women and immediate diagnosis and care for new born children and nursing mothers. The Anganwadi workers administer the immunisation of all children below the age of 6 years. The workers are paid a fixed honorarium of Rs. 3,000 by the Central Government and the State Government pay additional honorarium and wages variable in different states. Though the State Governments directly monitor and supervise the functioning of Anganwadi centres such as the recruitment of Anganwadi supervisors in each block, this massive programme receives around 50% of the funds (Rs. 16,000 crores approximately) from the Central Government.
4. The information sought by the appellant pertains to Mahboobnagar district of Telangana. The scheme is introduced by Government of India, under Integrated Child Development Scheme called ICDS, which is being implemented in every district of entire country with expenditure shared by both the States and the Central Government. The CPIOs of Central Government’s Women and Child Development and PIOs of the state departments implementing such agencies are holding the information, to which a citizen has a right to information. Hence the CPIOs have an obligation to prepare the information, collect and place it or provide such information from the concerned block and to give it to the appellant under RTI Act.
5. Section 4(1)(b) Every public authority shall publish within one hundred and twenty days from the enactment of this Act,- (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; of RTI Act, mandates voluntary disclosure under clause (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; (xii) the manner of execution of subsidy programs, including the amounts allocated and the details of beneficiaries of such programs; and under clause (xiii) the particulars of recipients of concessions, permits or authorizations granted by it.
6. As per the above provisions it is the mandatory duty of the every public authority to disclose complete details of money spent on subsidy program of ICDS on Anganwadies including the details of each individual beneficiary of this program. The information has to be disclosed under Section 4 is not subject to any exception under Sections 8 and 9, as that is about basic activity of the public authority and basic details of the officers involved in that public activity. For instances the list of beneficiaries and the amount of benefit received by those beneficiaries cannot be considered as personal information of those persons or ‘third’ party information. Section 4 is most substantial provision of the RTI Act. It deals with ‘transparency’ while the rest of the RTI Act is about right of the individual citizens to seek information, which, if is not part of the section 4 categories, is subject to other provisions of the RTI Act. Thus the list of beneficiaries under Anganwadi program under ICDS has to be disclosed by every public authority, centre or states. Regarding the agenda and minutes of the meetings, the RTI Act Section 4 has given a choice to the public authority to inform the people which part of the minutes are open to the public and place those minutes on their website as part of their disclosure policy under Section 4(1)(b) Every public authority shall publish within one hundred and twenty days from the enactment of this Act,- (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; (viii) of RTI Act. The Ministry of WCD is expected to disclose all the relevant details regarding spending of the money under this scheme voluntarily and also ask the concerned state departments through whom the scheme is being implemented to disclose as per the mandate of the RTI Act. The Union Ministry has a responsibility to insist on transparency in matters of spending central funds for their welfare schemes, by the state authorities.
7. The matter pertains to public authority within Telangana State. The appellant should have approached the Telangana State Information Commission and the Registrar of CIC who might have thought that it pertains to Ministry of Women and Child, the Deputy Registrar posted the case after duly informing both the parties, but none present. This case should have been returned instead of registering it as second appeal before this Commission. However, returning at this point of time does not serve any purpose and unnecessarily result in another proceeding under RTI Act. Having perused the records the Commission finds the appellant was unreasonable in demanding free supply of 1500 pages simply because of delay of one day from the date of RTI application. On merits, his plea does not stand. Hence it is reasonable for him to pay Rs 3000 and collect the information within one month from the date of receipt of this order.
8. Official website of Telangana Government http://wdcw.tg.nic.in/ claims that Telangana is one of the few states where a separate Department is functioning for development and welfare of women and children. In many states, these come under the Social Welfare Department. The broad mandate of the Department is to have holistic development of Women and Children, for which the Department has been implementing the world's largest and most unique and outreach programme of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) providing a package of services comprising supplementary nutrition, immunization, health check up and referral services, pre-school non-formal education. There are 35,700 Anganwadi Centers functioning in the State in 149 ICDS Projects. (31,711 Main Centers and 3989 Mini Centers). It also contains a window called e-sadhana, which gives access to anganwadis at ‘your place’ with all details of welfare measures, schemes, support programs etc. The website offers complete information about programs and the numbers of stake-holders involved, financial outlay etc. However the Commission noticed that there are no details of beneficiaries, benefits received by them, date etc. The details of payment of honorarium to the Anganwadis are also not available. The minutes of the monthwise meetings also could not be located. Citizens charters were claimed to have been placed on notice board, but they could not be traced. The Citizen charters or schemes, subsidies and other benefits need to be readily made available to the people as easily as possible including on their official website prominently.
9. The Commission directs the CPIO of MoWCD to issue necessary guidelines for voluntary disclosures as per the mandate under Section 4 of RTI Act for the guidance of all Child Development Project Officers, ICDS Project, including that of Makthal Mandal to provide complete information voluntarily on their websites, which would eventually benefit the appellant also.
10. The Commission requires as per Section 4 of the RTI Act all CDPOs of ICDS project all over the country to voluntarily publish the month-wise expenditure incurred for functioning and maintenance of Anganwadi centres, names of the beneficiaries, details of benefits regularly on their website and display the printed copies conspicuously on notice board.
11. Every welfare information, relating to subsidies, concessions or free supply of medicines or nutrients given to children, pregnant women, nursing mothers, newborn children with name, dates and particulars of benefits shall be displayed on notice board along with timelines and availability periods both in English and Telugu languages and updated periodically, so that citizens need not file RTI applications for such information.
SD/-
(M. Sridhar Acharyulu)
Central Information Commissioner
Citation: Myathari Janardhan v. PIO, MOWCD in CIC/MOWCD/A/2017/166012 Date of Decision – 10.07.2018