A Colloquium of RTI Practitioners (Colloquium) under the aegis of the CBAI Project was held at Centre for Good Governance (CGG), Hyderabad in the last week of February 2008 [27th 28th February 2008]

The RTI Cell at CGG had envisaged that the two-day Colloquium could deliberate upon:

• key aspects of the initiatives / interventions under / on RTI carried out by the participants (and/ or their respective organizations.
  
• main roadblocks in effective day-to-day implementation of the RTI Act, 2005 and the practical measures that could be taken to get around the roadblocks.
  
• aligning implementation of RTI with other significant developmental agendas for their mutual reinforcement.

Thus, in essence, the entire exercise was aimed at helping the participating stakeholders (including the CGG team) to generate, project or derive ideas / actions for better implementation of the RTI Act, 2005 and, in turn, to take their respective RTI-related work to the next, higher level. Accordingly, the broad Session Themes, determined for the Colloquium, were:

• Impact of RTI on Service Delivery including Access to Justice.
  
• RTI for Poverty Alleviation and De-marginalization.
  
• RTI for Protection of Environment.
  
• Local Democratic Governance (including Strengthening Local-level Planning) and RTI.

As a first step toward this objective, the practitioners got an opportunity to showcase their past and present work including highlighting the good practice case studies or the success stories that they were involved in. The participants were mostly activists engaged in various awareness, advocacy, dissemination and training activities using RTI directly or indirectly in their work. There was some representation from the Academia as well. Several of the participants had attended a workshop at CGG in April 2007 and took this opportunity to also present a detailed account of their work since.

With reference to the Session Themes, all the participants discussed in depth their Understanding their experiences their conclusions and their suggestions about the need for:

• pushing for scrupulous implementation RTI in rural areas
• reaching out, networking and customizing / targeting initiatives for the marginalized.
  
• auditing compliance of Public Authorities with key sections of the RTI Act, 2005.
  
• sensitizing / training school / college students.
  
• profiling RTI applications and appeals.
  
• using RTI for improving the quality of policy formulation and decision-making in Government.
  
• innovating for enhancing Proactive Disclosure through the administration-at-the-doorstep approach.
  
• implementing RTI in conjunction with other existing laws for greater impact.
  
• benchmarking with good practices.
  
• promoting greater advocacy and awareness for better application of the Public Interest test.
  
• focusing on good Records Management using Information and Communication Technologies to the extent possible.
  
• sensitizing the judicial machinery on various aspects of RTI.

List of Participants for the Colloquium:

• Ms. Amrita Johari, Satark Nagrik Sanghatan (SNS),Delhi.
  
• Mr. Dinesh Patel, Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration (SPIPA), Ahmedabad.
  
• Mr. George Cherian, Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS), Jaipur.
  
• Mr. Harinesh Pandya, Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP), Ahmedabad.
  
• Dr. J. B. Rajan, Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA), Thiruvananthapuram.
  
• Prof. Madabhushi Sridhar, National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University (NALSAR),Hyderabad.
  
• Mr. Nagendra Babu, Jana Chaitanya Vedika,Hyderabad.
  
• Mr. Pralhad Kachare, Assistant Commissioner, Nashik Divisional Commissionerate, Nashik.
  
• Mrs. Prema, Consumer Rights Education and Awareness Trust (CREAT), Bengaluru.
  
• Dr. Rakesh Ranjan, Madhya Pradesh Suchana Adhikar Abhiyan, Katni.
  
• Mr. Rao Chalikani, International Foundation for Human Development, Hyderabad.
  
• Mr. Sharad Kumar, Action for Good Governance and Networking in India (AGNI), Mumbai.
  
• Mr. Venkateswara Rao, Social Audit Council for Information Right (SACIR), Hyderabad.
  (This list is not exhaustive.)

The presentations made by several participants and the films screened during the course of the Colloquium are here: