PREPARING FOR IMPLEMENTATION

Setting Up Information Commissions: Employing Staff

The Central Act specifically envisages the establishment of State Information Commission offices in each of the different States.

The Central Act also permits the establishment of sub-regional offices for each of the Information Commissions. When the law was originally being drafted it was particularly felt that such offices could be important in ensuring that the Central Information Commission - which is responsible for handling appeals from all over the country - was accessible to the public and did not become overly Delhi-focussed. At the State level, it is not as clear that regional information offices will be necessary, particularly in smaller States or States with reliable communications infrastructure (that is, where telephones, faxes or emails could be used to contact the public, rather than having to rely on face to face interactions).

In addition to or instead of sub-regional offices, consideration could be given to sending Commissioners and/or their staff on regular roaming tours of each State and/or the country. Alternatively, to keep costs down while still ensuring ensure accessibility, consideration could be given to staffing sub-regional offices with Commission staff, rather than actual Information Commissioners. Staff could do the legwork and research for the Commissioners who could then make final decisions.

Each State and the Central Government will need to decide how many offices they want to set up. It may be that only one office is set up to begin with, but as more appeals come in and Governments can assess that there is more demand in a certain area, additional sub-regional offices may then be set up.