RTI a step towards real Swaraj, says Habibullah

Mumbai, Nov 9: The awareness of democratic rights among all sections of the society could only be brought about through Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005, as it is a giant step towards real Swaraj, Central Information Commission Chief Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has said.

''Only a limited section of the society has been able to exercise their democratic rights even as democracy has completed six decades in India'', he said.

Addressing an interactive meeting on ''Right to Information'' organised by Indian Merchants Chamber on Tuesday, Mr Habibullah reffered to Mahatma Gandhi's observation that real Swaraj can never come about by acquisition of authority by a few elected representatives in power. It can only be brought about by acquisition of capacity by a majority of citizens to resist the authority.

''The RTI Act 2005 aims precisely at building the capacity of citizens to resist the authority,'' he said.

Throwing light on the key areas of this new act, he said ''The RTI aims to bring about transparency and accountability by providing people the right to access all public information, except those exempted under section 8(24)''.

''The law imposes a mandatory duty on the government to proactively make available key information pertaining to all sectors of public governance to all people under section 4'', he said.

''It also gives right to citizens, NGOs, media and other entities to get vital public information and disseminate it among the citizens'', he said.

Mr Habibullah observed, while RTI was widely welcomed and used by a large number of citizens in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkatta and Chennai, it failed to cast a similar impact on rural India, including small towns.

Refuting observations that the RTI was ''a weapon to fight the authorities'', he said, ''It is only a tool to translate democratic principles into ground level realities''.

The RTI Act, which came into effect on October 12 last year, applies to the Central, State and Local governments, and requires the executive, judiciary and legislative bodies to strictly abide by its provisions.

UNI