On completion of 10 years of implementation of Right to Information Act in the country, a seminar was organised in the Vivekanand auditorium of Vinoba Bhave University jointly by the PG political science department and Suchnadhikar Raksha Manch yesterday evening.
Information Commissioner of Jharkhand State Himanshu Shekhar Chaudhary was the chief guest cum speaker of this seminar.
Addressing the gathering, Chaudhary said, “The time period of 10 years is neither too much long nor too much short. He said that it is a time to look back and to rectify the mistakes we had done in past because it will strengthen the agencies having responsibility to enact the law.”
“During last ten years people of our country and State have become conscious but more consciousness is required to make RTI more effective,” he added.
MlA Jayprakash Bhai Patel, Patron Suchnadhikar Raksha Manch said that it is our collective responsibility to make everyone aware about this Act which had given the common man a weapon to fight against corruption and the delaying tactics of Government machinery.
Patel said that in 1990, the Rajasthan Government started giving information to its people and in 2005, Government of India made this an Act.
Ganesh Kumar Citu, Secretary Suchnadhikar Raksha Manch gave a detailed account of the fight for this Act. He said that in 1923, the British Rulers had made the Official Secret Act to hide their cruelty, injustice, partiality etc.
“After Independence, conscious citizens of entire country raised their voice against this Act but the Government finally gave this real freedom to the people in 2005. Now it is our responsibility not only to save this freedom but to use it wisely to make the country world leader in real sense,” he added.
VC Professor Gurdeep Singh said that though RTI is a good Act but people are misusing it. Citing the example of ISM and VBU Professor Singh said that people use to demand that information which is already available on the websites and thus wastes the time and money of the organisation. He also said that for running an organisation properly giving all the information is not possible.
Earlier Usha Singh, HoD political science department, welcomed the guests and other dignitaries in the seminar. Information commissioner Himanshu Shekhar Chaudhary appreciated the spirit of VBU by saying “some days ago I had fined the information officer of VBU and it is the first university to organize a seminar on RTI”.
Professor Sukalyan Moitra anchored the seminar while Pramod Kumar gave vote of thanks.