The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : RTI must serve needs of society: Governor

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Tuesday, Jun 29, 2010
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

RTI must serve needs of society: Governor

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan has suggested inclusion of penal provisions in the Right to Information Act to prevent “vexatious litigation” and make its implementation more effective in meeting the needs of society.

Inaugurating a one-day national conference on RTI here on Monday, he told the Information Commissioners and other officials to review the extent to which the objectives of the legislation had been achieved and look into ways of making it more useful to society.

Advice to officials

Stating that the basic problem of the common man was “deprivation”, the Governor wanted the officials implementing the RTI Act to do some hard thinking and ensure that it met societal needs. Mr. Narasimhan suggested that the MoUs signed by the government with MNCs or companies be placed on the website for greater transparency.

Wajahat Habibullah, Chief Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission, said RTI was a major step in the evolution of India's democratisation process. It was an instrument for people to exercise their rights with regard to better governance. He said RTI was a constitutional right and called for creating awareness on its utilisation in rural areas.

RTI in State

Chief Information Commissioner C. D. Arha, who gave an overview of RTI implementation in the State, said that while 8,864 applications were received in its first year in 2006, their number went up to 65,973 in 2009 (644 per cent increase). Of the total 1,65,175 applications received since 2006, 1,56,392 were disposed of. Referring to awareness among rural people, he said while only 11 per cent of the applications were from rural areas in 2006, it went up to 42 per cent in 2009.

Chief Secretary S.V. Prasad outlined the measures taken by the government for implementation of RTI.

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