Times
of India: Patna: Monday, 06 April 2015.
The two-day
UGC-sponsored national seminar on 'RTI Act, 2005 a perfect guideline and
regulation to administrative discretion promoting participative democracy',
jointly organized by Patna Law College and the law faculty of College of
Commerce concluded here on Sunday with a call for judicious use of the Act for
strengthening democracy.
Delivering
the valedictory speech, Lucknow University's former vice-chancellor S K
Bhatnagar observed that the RTI Act, if used effectively, would go a long way
in empowering the democratic governance and providing social justice to the
common man.
Citing
examples of different countries, he pointed out that RTI has played a major
role in strengthening the roots of democracy through decentralization of rights
in the larger interest of the people. Even in India, legislative and
Parliamentary activities, which were virtually closed for the people, are now
open to the public with the enactment of RTI Act. The Act was an extension of
the spirit of the Preamble of the Constitution, he added.
Patna
University vice-chancellor observed that some of the existing constraints being
faced in effective implementation of the Act would vanish with the system
stabilization.
Altogether
four technical sessions, including 'RTI Act, 2005 its merits and demerits',
'Open government, participative democracy and administrative discretion', 'The
Official Secret Act and RTI' and 'RTI: Lessens the burden of court' were held.
Prominent
among those who participated in the deliberations included Rathin Bandopadhyay
of North Bengal University, Abdul Hafiz Gandhi of Amity University and D NNS
Yadav of Lucknow University. Patna Law College principal Rakesh Verma proposed
a vote of thanks.
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