Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on October 12, 2019, presided over the 14th Annual convention of the Central Information Commission (CIC) as Chief Guest.
In his address, Shah expressed his pleasure over the functioning of the Right to Information (RTI) Act and said that in the 14 years since its enactment, the purpose and objective of the act has been fulfilled. He added that the main objective of RTI was to increase trust of people in the system of governance and the Act has been successful in instilling and strengthening the faith of the people that the system functions within the boundaries defined by the Constitution.
Shah also said that in 1947, India attained freedom from a long era of oppression where the objective of the administration was discriminatory and was to fulfil the wishes of foreign masters, as opposed to looking after the welfare of people. This objective and the steps taken in that direction caused a disconnect between people and the administration. Shah remarked that till 2005, no step taken to remove this disconnect had been successful, but in the last 14 years, this gap is being fulfilled by the transparency and accountability ushered in through RTI. He called transparency and accountability the twin pillars of good governance and hailed RTI as a major milestone for good governance.
Shah noted that RTI has channelised and transformed civil society into a force that ensures accountability from the government. He said that while till 1990 only 11 nations had some form of RTI, this number increased with information revolution and globalisation, and this increase has helped advance the cause of good governance globally. He hailed India as the first nation to have successfully created an accountability system till the last leg of governance. He said that India has nearly 5 lakh information officers working to fulfil the writ of RTI at different levels of government.
Shah praised RTI as a great step to remove injustice and corruption from the system and increase the efficiency of governance. He said that RTI removes arbitrariness from governance and acts as a major grievance redressal tool. He said that the use of high technology methods like video conference and digitisation of RTI files makes the lives of litigants easier. He said that under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi, the government is committed to creating a system where there is enough suo moto declaration of information that the need to file RTI applications itself is reduced.
Shah expounded on the dichotomy between RTI and Data Protection laws. He noted the importance of proactive suo moto declaration of information by the government and said that from Mudra to online registrations of FIR, the use of internet has helped infuse transparency in the system. He noted that there has been very little misuse of RTI and said that this shows the maturity of our democracy, according to a PIB release.