The Implementation of Right to Information Act, 2005 in India

Abstract

RTI Act is a milestone in the democracy of India as it has tried to build a new institutional mechanism for ensuring transparency and accountability in the functioning of public institutions. The crux of the RTI Act is to create an information dispensation regime in which information can be accessed by any citizen in an affordable manner. In India, the implementation of the RTI Act has been quite uneven across states. Nearly seven years have passed since the enactment of the Act but the implementation of the act has not been successful in the way it should have been. The present Research paper tries to assess the implementation of the Act in India with particular reference to the implementation in Jharkhand, a State of India. The paper concludes that there is less awareness, less usage of the act and the act has not led to much improvement in the information seeking and delivery mechanisms in the state.

Keywords: Right to Information Act (RTI), Governance, Public Information Officer (PIO), Public Authority (PA).