Ahmedabad, April 15: Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah today said that public awareness about Right To Information (RTI) Act is not as high as it should have been.
"The RTI Act is major instrument in democratisation process. The constitution had laid the foundation of democracy but the foundation has to be built upon. And RTI Act is the flowering of the process that was initiated over 60 years ago," Habibullah said at a public lecture on 'Challenges in Making RTI more effective' here today.
But he said "the levels of public awareness about RTI Act is not as high as it should be. The rapidity of implementation is very slow, although compared to implementation of other laws, it is remarkably faster. The credit for which mainly goes to the NGOs".
The Act seeks to shift the focus back to the common man.
By this process, we seek to bring people of India to the centre of governance, he said adding "while this purpose may not have been achieved, we are moving in that direction".
"I say this because recent studies have shown over 40 per cent of users of RTI Act are people who are uneducated or even illiterate," Habibullah said.
Talking about the challenges before the RTI Act, Habibullah said that among the young people, the kind of movement he was looking for, has not yet taken place.
He said that the awareness levels in rural areas about the act was only 10 per cent compared to 30 per cent in Urban areas of the country, the CIC said.
"These are some of the areas that need to be looked at and promoted. There is lot to be done still and lot of awareness to be created. There is enthusiasm which has gripped large part of the country which needs to be pushed further," Habibullah said.
"Every bastion of the conservative administration has bowed down and accepted the fact that RTI is all permissive, not even the President of India is above RTI law, let alone MPs and MLAs," he added.
Habibullah said proper implementation of RTI Act would not only make India a leading democracy in the world, but also the world's most complete democracy.
He also expressed concern that the public in general do not have sense of participation in process of governance, and said that this perception needs to be changed.
RTI activist and president of the Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel (MAGP) Harinesh Pandya said that more people should start asking questions to the government.
"For RTI Act which is in its fifth year, the challenge now is to broaden its user base and create more awareness about it," Pandya who shared the dais with Habibullah said.
"And in this the State Information Commissions would play a vital role," Pandya said.
Social activist Teesta Setalvad said that the Central intelligence agencies should also be brought under the RTI scanner.
Our intelligence agencies like IB and RAW are not under legislative scanner.
If the country can talk about an act like RTI, then I think the next step would be to bring these agencies under the act, Setalvad said.
Setalvad also said that how the RTI evolves in Gujarat was going to be very interesting thing to watch, "given the current political atmosphere of not tolerating dissent".
--PTI--
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