On the government's table for the next five years is a plan to train gov ernment officials to improve their handling of applications under RTI and incorporating lessons on the transparency law in textbooks for children so that they grow up with the confidence that the right to demand access is theirs.

A major part of the Rs 300 crore plan drawn up by the Department of Personnel and Training will, however, go towards creating a decent and mod ern office for the state information commissions who are the last word on requests for information in the states.

"Given how tightly-placed states are placed vis-à-vis resources and how high it figures on their list of priorities, the state information commissions are having to face major problems due to lack of infrastructure," said a DoPT official.

By the time the plan scheme is wrapped up five years later, the government intends to ensure that 1,500 officials in each of the nearly 400 districts across the country do not go about turning away people or rejecting information on frivolous grounds.

"In every district that is covered, the purpose is to train all the designated public information officers, their deputies who assist them and superiors who will hear appeals as well the heads of public authorities besides officials of non-governmental organisations who receive grant from the government and can be covered by the law," said a department official.

As of now, the training plan would not cover the central information com missioners. RTI activist, Manish Siso dia, said it should, especially given the numerous instances when the infor mation commissioners in Delhi had re vealed their ignorance about the letter or the spirit of the law.

The DoPT official said one out of every ten rupees allocated under this plan would be spent on creating awareness about the law through advertisements over television and radio and messages printed on post-cards.

"So they are finally doing something," remarked Dev Ashish Bhattacharya, who pushed a red faced government into revealing last year that it had spent just Rs 18.7 lakh in 20 months on the law that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh often uses to showcase the government's commitment to rais ing the governance bar.

THE IDEA

1 To create a decent office for the state information commissions who are the last word on requests for information in the states.

2 To ensure that 1,500 officials in each of the nearly 400 districts across the country do not go about turning away people or rejecting information on frivolous grounds.

3 To create awareness about RTI law through advertisements over television and radio.