Maintaining that secrecy has no place in this time and age, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the RTI process should follow ‘3-T’ mantra of timely, transparent and trouble-free access to information to people.
Speaking at the 10th annual Convention of Central Information Commission, Modi noted that the Right to Information Act has given the common man the right to question those in power and stressed on bringing transparency “proactively”, saying the faster “we move towards transparency”, the stronger will be the faith of people in democracy.
“The process of accessing information should be transparent, timely and trouble-free. Delayed information does not help to solve the problem but increases it. Timely information can halt a wrong decision. We will emphasise this,” he said.
Highlighting the ambitious Digital India project, the Prime Minister said the scheme is complementary to the spirit of RTI as the more things become online, the more transparency comes in. He also stressed that RTI should be used to bring improvement in governance.”If a question is asked by a citizen there must be some issue in Government that the need for question arose. A small RTI question can force you to change policy,” he said.
Modi said the RTI Act is a tool through which the common man has got not just the right to know, but also the right to question those in power. He said there should be trust between the Government and people and it comes through transparency. Talking about introduction of self-attestation of documents, the Prime Minister said “we have to trust people”.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion Finance Minister Arun Jaitley termed the RTI Act as an “exemplary law” which has been “a very successful experience” as far as the Indian society is concerned. “It has transformed us during the last few decades and particularly in the last decade, from a society that relished in secrecy,” he said.
The Finance Minister said the administrators of the RTI Act will have to use their discretion whether the Act is being used for empowerment, to avoid harassment, for the benefit of the common man or is it being used by busy bodies for collateral purpose.
Jaitley said the administrators will have to do a balancing act between “strengthening the exercise of this Right and preventing possible abuse in the implementation of this particular legislation.”