Two-day RTI Convention gets Underway


Whistle Blowers’ Protection bill to be Passed During Winter Session- Veerappa Moily

The 5th Annual Convention on RTI got underway here today. Organized by Central Information Commission (CIC), the Convention this year has a theme “RTI: Challenges & Opportunities”. Union Minister of Law & Justice, Shri Veerappa Moily inaugurated the Convention. In his address Shri Moily said that the RTI agenda of truly empowering people with information, needs to be taken forward. He said that RTI Act underlines to make the governance citizen centric and not officer-centric. The Minister said that the whistleblowers and RTI activists are instrumental in furthering the cause of transparency and need adequate protection. He asserted that the Whistleblower Bill (The Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons making the Disclosure Bill) will be passed by the Parliament in the winter session. Shri Moily said that a strong monitoring mechanism needs to be in place for ensuring the success of RTI Act. Referring to Pricewater Cooper (PwC) study, he said that still a large number of our population in the rural as well as urban areas are not aware of RTI Act, reflecting peoples alienation from governance. Shri Moily also stressed the need to put in place a mechanism by preventing the abuse of RTI Act.



In his welcome address, Chief Inforamtion Commissioner Shri Wazahat Habibullah said that the RTI Act forces the bureaucracy to share information and thereby ensuring accountability. He felt that in due course, the empowerment through RTI could become the instrumental in eradicating poverty and other deep rooted problems in our society. The large number of appeals being filed with Central Information Commission reflects that CIC has been able to withstand the test. Shri Habibullah called upon the media, Non-Government Organisations and Civil Society Organisations to actively pursue the cause of RTI so that the Government acts as a facilitator for sharing information with people. He informed that so far 65 thousand cases and appeals have been filed with CIC of which around 54 thousand have been disposed of. CIC has awarded compensations amounting to Rs.25 lakhs. He stressed that there is need to extend the reach of RTI to the rural people. Shri Habibullah felt that complete operationalisation of Section 4 of RTI Act has to be ensured and it needs to be clarified as to which authority is to enforce this Section. He further said that there is need to develop a mechanism to ensure protection of RTI activists.



Information Commissioner, Smt. Deepak Sandhi proposed a vote of thanks on the inaugural session.



The two-day convention will have five technical sessions covering major aspects of Right to Information (RTI). The various sessions will deliberate on issues such as: RTI and Public Private Partnership (PPP) Projects, Responsibility of Political Leadership in promoting RTI, RTI and Judiciary, Challenges and Opportunities in RTI – Role and Responsibility of Media/Civil Society Organizations, RTI and Unique Identification Project-Possibilities.



The present convention is being attended by representatives of Transparency International, Civil Society and media both from within the country and from SAARC countries. The deliberations are expected to produce documents of contemporary as well as long term relevance to South Asia.



On the occasion of this convention a monograph released. This monograph sets out the experiences of stakeholder from all sections in regard to the implementation of the Right to Information legislation in the last five years. The “Resonance of Information” was first of its kind brought on the occasion of National Convention on RTI in 2006 and the present monograph the second in series. The monograph documents the report and recommendations of two of the conventions of this Commission.