DOPT is offering short-term intemships to effective implementation of RTI

F.No 1/21/2012- IR
Ministry of Personnel, PG and Pensions
Department of Personnel and Training

North Block,
New Delhi-110001
Dated 15th October, 2012

Office Memorandum

Subject : Guidelines on Internship for Undergraduates pursuing five year integrated course in Law under the Centrally sponsored Scheme on "Improving Transparency and Accountability in government through effective implementation of Right to Information Act" for the year 2012-2013

1.0 Introduction

The Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, is the nodal Ministry for the Right to Information Act, It is administering a Plan scheme titled improving Transparency and Accountability in Government through effective Implementation of the Right to Information Act.
The primary goal of the scheme is to contribute towards more accountable and transparent government and It has several components including programmes for awareness generation, training and e-governance initiatives for RTI for achieving the purpose.

An Internship Programme has been a felt need for the Ministries and Departments in the Government of India, which is beneficial both to the Departments and the interns. This will help the Ministry/ Department consolidate and document its experience in the implementation of RTI, its successes, constraints in implementation, identify the areas which need more attention, address the gap areas and suggest what more needs tobe done to help achieve the objectives of the Act. The interns would be familiarized with the process of seeking information and enabling access to information under the RTI regime.

Under the scheme, DOPT is offering short-term intemships to Undergraduates pursuing five year integrated course in Law to conduct an analysis of RTI Applications in select public authorities.

2.0 Areas of Study and Research Output

The RTI Internship is being offered to analyze a sample of the RTI applications received in the year 2011-2012 by select public authorities.The analysis of the applications would aim to get an overall picture of the applications received and do an indepth study of the information sought and the response by the CPIO/ Public Authority. Templates of the to study and analyze the RTI applications and the last week for writing the report.

e) The interns will be required to study the applications received by 5 CPlOs within the public authority which receive the maximum applications. They will be required to select randomly 20 applications from each CPIO for study. In case the Public Authority has only one CPIO the interns may study RTI applications received by 5 divisions.

The interns are expected to collect the sample RT1 applications and finish Template I in the first week and then finish Template II in the next two weeks. Copies of all RTI applications analysed will be submitted to DOPT alongwith the report. A soft copy of the templates has to be submitted to the email id usir-dopt@nic.in by 1st February, 2013. Non submission of either will be read as an incomplete report.

sd/-
(Anuradha S. Chagti)
Director (IR)