Narayan Bareth

Bareth has been working in the field of journalism for around three decades. He began his career at Navbharat Times in Kota in 1986 and went on to work with various news groups, including The Asian Age, BBC, Dainik Bhaskar, Deccan Chronicle, and The Pioneer. He is credited for laying the foundations for BBC in Rajasthan, working as BBC Rajasthan correspondent for over a decade.[6][7] As an esteemed journalist in Rajasthan, he has extensively covered the desert region's droughts and reported on issues such as the Indo-Pak border, migration, and the influx of refugees from Pakistan. He has also written numerous articles on social discrimination, women's empowerment, and development stories from marginalized communities such as Muslims and Dalits in the state. He was associated with the campaign for the establishment of the RTI Act.[8] In 2005, Prof Bareth retraced Gandhi's famous Dandi March from Sabarmati to Dandi and documented his journey. Along with attending several orientation programs, he has delivered speeches on media and journalism and participated in workshops in various locations. His research interests include radio journalism.[7][9][10][11]

According to Bareth, caste-issues play minimal role in state elections in Rajasthan which alternates between Congress and BJP every five years.[12] However, it is still an issue today where having a name associated with lower castes sets them apart. He highlighted the name change notices in newspapers, revealing the widespread impact on countless names, not just in Rajasthan.[13]

Speaking on recent trends, Bareth stated that India has much to preserve in every field, but the market is now dominating everything. According to him, India's culture, spirituality, yoga, clothing, food are its soft power, but the country is losing sight of its identity.[14] He expressed concern about the media's growing focus on advertising over the public interest, and believes that questioning is crucial to the understanding of society, which should not be suppressed.[15]

Narayan Bareth was appointed State Information Commissioner in December 2020.[16][17][18][19]

During his 21-month tenure, Bareth resolved more than 7,000 cases, including 389 complaints. In some cases, officers were also directed to update their service records. During his tenre, Bareth fined over 200 rural development and Panchayati Raj officials, plus 35 urban development and local body officials who had failed to provide required information with regards to RTIs filed.[20][21][22] Bareth stated that he had only 17 months of actual work due to Covid lockdown, and treated all work with priority, including low-influence applications like pension cases and document requests.[23][24][25][26][27]

Narayan Bareth acknowledged the importance of using the Right to Information (RTI) Act for good governance. According to him, only 3.5% of the population in Rajasthan is currently using the RTI. Bareth cited Sweden as an example of a country where the RTI has been implemented for nearly 250 years, resulting in faster work pace and almost non-existent corruption. He also stated that the Information Commission is working on increasing awareness about the RTI and that the biggest challenge for the Commission is the backlog of nearly 18,000 pending cases in Rajasthan, with only 5,000 cases resolved so far. Despite the lack of resources, efforts were being made to work on people's appeals.[28][29]

As the Information Commissioner, Bareth's last working day saw the resolution of 10 cases. In 21 months, he took no leave and resolved an average of 396 cases per month, which was a record. Bareth instructed Panchayati Raj and local bodies not only to provide information to applicants but also to disseminate and publish that information on their websites.[23]