BANGALORE: Recording a "below average performance," Karnataka has been ranked a poor 15th amongst the 28 States, surveyed for compliance to the suo moto provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The report of the "National Assessment of the Degree of Compliance to suo moto Disclosure Provisions of Right to Information Act-2005 Report" conducted by the city-based Public Affairs Centre (PAC) was released here on Monday. Nagaland with 62% compliance, Delhi - 56%, Bihar - 55%, Punjab - 51% and Andhra Pradesh with 49% were the top five compliant states. Jhark-hand, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam with zero percent scores and Uttarkhand (3%) and Kerala (6%), join the list of least compliant states. Overall, the average compliance percentage score for State Governments was a mere 28%. Central Government Ministries and departments with an average score of 53 percent emerged as public authorities with the highest compliance. Union Territories had 19 percent compliance. The Department of Commerce and Ministry of Panchayat Raj top scored with 87% degree of compliance followed by Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperation and Ministry of Urban Development both at 80%, the lowest scorers amongst the central government ministries are Min-istry of Environment and Forests at 11%. Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation has a zero percent compliance score since its website contained no information whatsoever pertaining to suo moto provisions. Right to Ignorance The report was released by Justice Venkatachalaiah, former Chief Justice of India and Chair-man-PAC Dr Samuel Paul. Paul said: "Governments enact laws like RTI with great fanfare, but fail to follow up with credible implementation. Suo moto information through websites is the easiest thing for governments to do. The poor performance of most governments on this score simply reflects their indifference to empowering people with information. Parliament gave us the right to information, but governments are giving us the right to ignorance (RTI)." The main objective of the national assessment was to analyze the degree of compliance by central and state governments with the provisions related to suo moto proactive disclosures under Section 4 (1) (b) of the RTI Act, 2005 is done based on the information published on the websites of following public authorities: 12 central govt ministries/ departments; 16 departments of all 28 state governments except Jammu and Kashmir, 16 departments of all Union Territories Central and State Information Commissions The combined average compliance percentage score for State Information Commissions (SIC) and the Central Information Commission (CIC) was 44%. The report reeommended-fbring responsibility for the implementation of suo moto provisions; prioritizing categories of information under suo moto provisions.