CIC to review working of RTI Act nat convention

New Delhi, Oct 10: The Central Information Commission(CIC) will do some introspection and take stock of its performance with all stakeholders at a three-day national convention to be held here from October 13 to 15 on the first anniversary of the Right to Information Act becoming operational.

''We want to know the view points of stakeholders for fruitful implementation of the Act. We want to know its shortcomings and plus points to draw a road map for the future,'' said CIC secretary Rita Sinha briefing newspersons about the convention.

There were some very important areas of confusion in the exsisting RTI which need to be defined such as the difference between citizen and a person, and which is a public authority and which is not so far as the applicability of the Act was concerned, she said.

All these probelms need to be sorted out and the deliverations at the convention will help us a lot in this task, the CIC secretary said.

The convention will be inaugurated by President APJ Kalam and the valedictory address given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Ms Sinha said the convention will have a special session of citizens to know their viewpoints. Besides it will the CIC a good opportunity to know the problems of state information commissions.

There will be four panel discussions relating to stocktaking, information storage and retrieval, challenges to RTI, creating awareness, especially in rural areas, and implementation of RTI in states, she said.

''Deliberations are expected to be of a very wide group wherein some effective outcomes on various aspects of RTI and governance in the country are ecpected to emerge. This should help CIC chart a course for the future,'' she said.

Ms Sinha said the citizens views gathered during the deliberations will be incorporated in the recommendations which will be made by the CIS at the end of the convention.

UNI