RTI can be instrumental in improving government

BHUBANESWAR: A government needs to be improved and a better government needs to be bettered. The Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, can be instrumental in achieving this. The government usually perceives the RTI activists as its foes, said N K Panda, president, Citizens’ Apex Association (CAA), at a function organised by it here.  He said, “Government is like a palace, whose all windows are closed. We need to open the windows through RTI. I call them windows of information.”  Even though some of the departments cooperate, other departments are hellbent on avoiding answers. They have even found innovated ways to circumvent the Act, he said.  Several suggestions were mooted by Nanda like removal of identity card while applying queries under the RTI.   He said RTI’s main purpose is to demystify the government. It is instrumental in bringing in transparency in the system that makes the government function better. S C Hota, retired IAS officer said, “The colonial-minded babus had crippled the system by the Official Secrecy Act, 1983. This has hindered free flow of information. But the RTI is trying to deal with the problem.” Even though we have a fundamental law on freedom of speech, most of the laws are silent on the right to access information.  Jagadananda, Information Commissioner, Orissa, explained that the  Act is at a nascent stage of implementation. After the Act came into force, people started expecting miracles, but that was not about to happen.  The chief guest of the function, Chief Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission, Satyananda Mishra had to cancel his trip at the last moment.