India 2018

38 India 2018
Administrative Reforms Commission
The second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) was constituted in
2005, as a Commission of Inquiry for preparing a detailed blueprint for
revamping the public administrative system. It presented 15 reports for
consideration: (i) Right to Information: Master Key to Good Governance; (ii)
Unlocking Human Capital: Entitlements and Governance - A Case Study; (iii)
Crisis Management: From Despair to Hope; (iv) Ethics in Governance; (v) Public
Order : Justice for Each ... Peace for All; (vi) Local Governance; (vii) Capacity
Building for Conflict Resolution - Friction to Fusion; (viii) Combating Terrorism;
(ix) Social Capital - A Shared Destiny; (x) Refurbishing of Personnel
Administration - Scaling New Heights; (xi) Promoting e-Governance - The
Smart Way Forward; (xii) Citizen Centric Administration - the Heart of
Governance; (xiii) Organisational Structure of Government of India; (xiv)
Strengthening Financial Management System; (xv) state and district
Administration. The central government considered 14 out of 15 reports and
the decisions on the accepted recommendations of 2nd ARC are at various
stages of implementation.
Right to Information
The Right to Information Act, 2005 empowers the citizens, promotes
transparency and accountability in the working of the government, combat
corruption and make the democracy work for people in real sense. The Act
aims at creating an informed citizenry which would be better equipped to
keep necessary vigil on the instruments of governance and make the
government more accountable to the governed.
The Act gives all the citizens the right to seek information held by any
authority or body or institution of self government established or constituted
by or under the Constitution; or by any other law made by the Parliament or a
state legislature; or by notification issued or order made by the central
government or a state government. Bodies owned, controlled or substantially
financed by the central government or a state government and non-government
organizations substantially financed by the central government or a state
government also fall within the definition of public authority. The right includes
inspection of work, documents and records, taking notes, extracts or certified
copies of documents or records, taking certified samples of material held by
the public authority or held under the control of the public authority. It also
includes information relating to any private body which can be accessed by
the public authority under any law for the time being in force. There are some
categories of information which each public authority is required to publish
suo moto.
One has to simply make a request to the Public Information Officer of the
office indicating the information sought and the address at which the
information is required. The request can be sent either by post or submitted in
person in Hindi, English or in the official language of the area and can also be