The Hindu : Karnataka News : Workshop to popularise RTI Act held

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 06, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka

Workshop to popularise RTI Act held

Special Correspondent

Lack of understanding of provisions an obstacle to effective use, say activists

RTI Act in Puducherry school curriculum likely
‘RTI Act and
human rights complementary'

CHOKLI (KANNUR): Lack of proper understanding of the provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act as a major weapon in the fight against corruption is an obstacle to effective use of the legislation to ensure transparency in governance, activists involved in popularising the Act have said.

The activists who gathered here on Sunday for a workshop of the RTI working group debated various issues relating to the Act, discussed case studies and presented problems, and framed model RTI questions to equip RTI activists for disseminating the rights enshrined in the RTI Act.

It was disclosed that even 20 per cent of the people were not equipped to use the RTI Act properly to ensure transparency in the functioning of the government.

Inaugurating the workshop, Puducherry Home Minister E. Valsaraj said the Puducherry government was considering a proposal to include the RTI Act in the school curriculum in order to create awareness of the Act among students. Admitting that the Act had done a lot to introduce transparency in governance and make public servants more careful in their functioning, Mr. Valsaraj said some people were using the RTI Act for trivial purposes without understanding its real potential. Kerala State Human Rights Commission member K.E. Gangadharan said the RTI Act and human rights were complementary. The legislation to ensure protection of human rights had been preceded by protests and social movements Such movements helped to create mass awareness of human rights, he said.

Mr. Gangadharan underlined the importance of popular movements for the protection of the RTI Act. With the RTI Act, every citizen got the right to ask questions of authorities, he said. It had also affected the behaviour of bureaucracy at all levels.

Explaining various sections in the RTI Act, advocate T. Asaf Ali said the right to get information regarding governance was a fundamental right.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka