40pc people have not heard of RTI Act in rural Raj :Survey

Jaipur, Feb 15 (UNI) In rural Rajasthan only 60 per cent of the common people have heard of the RTI Act but only 15 per cent understand the various provisions of the Act and are capable of filing an RTI application without any assistance, a survey shows.

The survey commissioned by Centre for Consumer Action, Research&Training (CUTS) under a project ''Combating Corruption in Rajasthan by Applying RTI Act as a tool'' implemented in the two divisions of Rajasthan jointly with Partnership for Transperancy Fund says 80 per cent of the government officials are aware of the Act but only 35 per cent knows about the various provisions under it.

At the final dissimination meeting of the project held here today, Associate director of CUTS Rajasthan George Cheriyan said the analysis of the implementation of the RTI Act in the state brought out several recommendations also. The single window system which exists only in Bhilwara district was found to be an ideal model which can be replicated in other districts too while the capacity of information providers has to be enhanced to handle the increasing RTI applications.

The existing government mechanism needs to be moulded for showing positive attitude towards information seekers and an easy process to facilitate the filing of application needs to be put in place.

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