from daijiworld's special correspondent

Panaji, Jul 2: The Goa Civic and Consumer Action Network (GOACAN) has joined the "Drive against Bribe" using Right to Information Act 2005 (RTI) as part of the National Campaign launched on 1st July.

The Drive against Bribe campaign is a massive nationwide awareness-cum-assistance program that has taken off in 45 cities spread across 15 states to promote the use of RTI as a tool to curb demands for bribes in lieu of pending works in government departments.

It may be recalled that the RTI Act was passed in Parliament on October 12, 2005 as a Central Act applicable to all State and Central Government Departments and Non-Governmental bodies which are substancially financed by the Govenment.

For the state of Goa the Rules under this Act were gazetted on February 15, 2006 and various Departments have in the recent months finalised their Public Information Officers (PIOs) and Assistant Public Information Officers (APIOs) besides preparing their respective information manuals.

More recently the State Information Commision has also been constituted and has started to function from its office in Panjim.

GOACAN has completed training sessions with Consumer Forum volunteers who will undertake the campaign in their respective villages over a period of 45 days ending 15th August. In the first phase the campaign will primarily focus on Essential Commodities which come under the purview of the Department of Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and will cover Kerosene dealers, Ration shops, and LPG distributors in various villages as their services impact every family in Goa.

In the second phase the Forum volunteers will cover the offices of the Talathis in their respective villages with a focus on pending applications for Income certificates, ration cards, resident certificates and other documents urgenly required by citizens and wherein a delay may result in payment of bribes. Consumer Forum volunteers in their respective villages will offer guidance to citizens to draft RTI applications.

Meanwhile GOACAN will also conduct awareness actions in various cities of Goa as part of the campaign so as to convince affected citizens to use RTI instead of paying bribes to government officials to get their work done.

Citizens wanting guidance in filing RTI applications or would like to provide information on officials demanding bribes, can write to GOACAN - RTI Assistance Cell, P O Box 187, Margao 403 601 or e-mail goacan@sancharnet.in