Times of India: Nagpur: Tuesday, June 05, 2018.
To create
awareness among people about Right To Information (RTI) Act, 2005, Janmanch had
organized a programme at Baburao Dhanwate Sabhagruh, Shankar Nagar, on
Saturday.
The RTI act
gives the citizens the right to access information and services they need from
the public offices and Janmanch’s initiative aimed to create awareness about
RTI and discuss its implementation at various levels.
Sharad Patil,
president of Janmanch said, “Knowledge is empowering and RTI has come as a boon
at a time when corruption is on a rise. The concept of RTI is good but its
implementation is still questionable.”
Patil said
that the government officials often wrongly classify the documents as
“confidential” to make them inaccessible to the public and try to cover their
tracks. He cited instances when the members of Janmanch were given wrong or
irrelevant information which made it difficult for them to scoop out some
important data.
He urged the
audience to involve themselves in awareness programmes and said, “RTI can bring
openness and transparency among the people and the authorities and thereby
create a change. People should come forward in large numbers and urge the
government to properly implement this empowering tool.”
Ram Akhre, an
RTI activist, said, “People don’t know the constitution and are unaware of
their rights hence cannot utilize them optimally. Earlier when RTI was passed,
it was celebrated but people lost their zeal after they witnessed its poor
implementation.” Akhre has been working on RTI awareness campaigns since long
and has interacted with more than 20 lakh citizens from all walks of life and
has also presented at programmes held in cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi
and Mumbai.
Abhay
Kolarkar, a renowned RTI activist, has filed over a thousand queries under RTI
and shared with the audience some of the success stories. Informing about the
situations in which RTI can be used he said, “All public forums can be
questioned under RTI. Petrol pumps, colleges, schools, LPG dealers are only
some of them. RTI has immense potential to bring a positive change and if
everybody uses it properly then we’re looking at a brighter future.”
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