NGOs come under RTI Act, info panel pulls up general administration department

BHOPAL: Three days after Comptroller and Audit General (CAG) Shashi Kant Sharma directed social audits on NGOs and panchayat bodies directly funded by the government, state information commission has ordered all state government-funded NGOs to come under the ambit of RTI Act. The order also hauls up principal secretary, general administration department (GAD) K Suresh, for failing to implement provisions of RTI Act.
The order has been sent to collector, commissioner, CEOs and commissioner of municipal corporation of Jabalpur division along with GAD to submit a status report by May 20 when the final hearing of the case will take place.
The order was passed by information commissioner Heeralal Trivedi a few days ago on a complaint by RTI activist Ajay Dubey under section 18 of RTI Act over non-compliance of RTI Act by state-funded NGOs.
Even though cognizance was taken after it was given to the commission on April 2014, the order was released three days ago.
The order states transparency and accountability should be maintained by NGOs which receive annual funding of Rs 50,000 and above by government. NGOs must come under section 4 (1) (b) of RTI Act, 2005, which demands proactive disclosure of information by an organization.
Speaking to TOI, RTI activist Ajay Dubey said, “It’s the duty of GAD to bring these government-funded NGOs under purview of RTI Act because law demands them to do it. The government departments who fund these NGOs are very much responsible for the same as they should know if NGOs they are funding are covered under RTI. These NGO mafias are protected because they are prime authorities belong to political bodies. We don’t know about directors of NGOs, which sector are they looking after, where is their infrastructure and how much are they funded? Everything thing is hidden under paper work. GAD has never been interested in revealing information about these NGOs nor showed interest in bringing them under transparency tool of RTI.”