NGOs, govt, to spread RTI message

Paul John & Kumar Manish, TNN 4 October 2009, 03:16am IST
AHMEDABAD: For the first time without confronting each other, members of civil society groups and government agencies would jointly celebrate four years of implementation of Right To Information (RTI) act in the state. The event is being pepped up with traditional art forms of puppet shows, streetplays and community sheri garbas to convey the importance of the law.

Harinesh Pandya of Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel, a member partner of the festival, said, "The whole RTI campaign will focus on proactive disclosure by government organizations under RTI and mass sensitisation programme for all the stockholders in RTI."

"The campaign will address technical problems faced while filing RTI applications and proactive disclosures by government departments," says Pandya. The RTI Act came into force on October 12, 2005.

In the city, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has designed an elaborate programme to celebrate RTI in a big way between October 5 to October 12. The focus would be reaching out to masses and also training officers of various wards.

Deputy municipal commissioner, AMC, MS Patel said, "We would encourage and inform people about the RTI act in our campaign." "We will be conducting a lot of interactive sessions including a mini workshop on RTI where AMC employees including some representatives from general public will be trained in the modalities of RTI Act", he says.

In other parts of Gujarat a multi-stakeholders RTI consultation programme will be held in Panchmahal district. For the first time members from Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative CHRI, and NGOs like Anandi, MAGP would partner with district officials like the DDO, district education office and Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration in propagating the RTI message among rural population and the importance of proactive disclosures amongst government institutions.

Vapi collector's office will hold a day's training programme for its own officers.