By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Underlining the need to create awareness on the RTI Act, State Chief Information Commissioner CD Kynjing stated that there are many people who are still not familiar with various procedure of this Act.
“People are still not conversant with the procedure of this Act and there is a need to have mass campaign to create awareness and educate the people with the various provisions of the Act,” Kynjing said during his valedictory address on the concluding day of the two-day seminar on “Strengthening Participatory Democracy: Five years of the role of RTI” organized at Synod College, Jaïaw here on Saturday.
While terming the RTI Act as one of the most crucial legislations, he said that many major scams have been exposed through this Act.According to Kynjing, the corruption in the Common Wealth Games, the Adarsh Scam and the 2G has come to light only due to the RTI.
Meanwhile, the SIC informed that it is really encouraging to see more and more people in the State using the RTI.Kynjing was however not too happy with the manner some people are using the RTI.
“There are allegations applicants have sought information under the RTI Act with a view to harass the public information officers by seeking voluminous and irrelevant information.’’
He described RTI as the key weapon in the fight against poverty, besides being the right to freedom and right to human development.
Kynjing feared that the Jan Lok Bill might overshadow the present RTI Act.
“A strong movement is going on throughout the country to pressure the Government to come up with a strong legislation to root out corruption,” SIC stated.
He said that it would be interesting to see how the Lok Pal Bill finally shapes up.
It may be mentioned that the seminar was organised by the PA Sangma Foundation in collaboration with Synod College, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) India Office and Media for Change, New Delhi.