New Delhi: Asserting that secrecy has no place in this time and age, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said 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 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 emphasize this,” he said.
Highlighting ambitious Digital India, 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 Right To Information 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.
The Prime Minister said effort should be to introduce transparency in a proactive manner. “Why can’t we bring transparency proactively? Why should anyone make effort to get information. The effort of the government should be that citizen should get information easily,” he said. Talking about introduction of self-attestation of documents, the Prime Minister said “we have to trust people”.
“Secrecy could have been the norm during some old times but I don’t think there is need of such secrecy now. Transparency brings in simplicity and speed in the working of the government,” he said.
“The awareness of people gives strength to government and not only government, an aware society becomes an asset to the nation…. The process of evolution of RTI Act will continue which will strengthen it,” he said.
A group of activists has boycotted the inaugural session claiming that large number of them were barred from entry in the convention as authorities cited security reasons.
The Prime Minister said through RTI people can get information about process but not the product like it can give details about tendering etc of an under construction bridge, it cannot give details of its quality.
Modi said detailed analysis of questions asked by people can underline shortcomings in governance which can be rectified by those in government.
“Only responding to RTI questions cannot bring change in governance. When we will perfectly analyse questions and find shortcomings in governance…the questions of citizens can highlight these shortcomings of the system and we can find a way to correct them. RTI should be used as medium for good governance,” he said.
Underlining that people are paramount in a democracy, Modi said, “Government must pay importance to every concern raised by a people’s representative, whichever party he or she may belong to because he raises an issue of his constituency only because of public interest involved in this.” (PTI)
