Analyse RTI queries, says Modi

Deccan Herald: New Delhi: Saturday, 17 October 2015.

Do not just reply to Right to Information (RTI) questions, analyse them to understand flaws in governance and tweak policies accordingly.

This was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to government departments at the 10th Annual Convention of the Central Information Commission on Friday.

Addressing the inaugural session of the convention, Modi also stressed on the need to bring transparency in governance to instill faith of the people in democracy.

The inaugural function was boycotted by a group of RTI activists who claimed that they were denied entry to the convention citing security reasons.

Modi’s initial plans to skip the convention triggered a controversy with a section of the opposition parties questioning the government’s commitment to the implementation of the RTI Act.

Pursue transparency

Modi asked the government departments to be proactive in pursuing transparency in functioning. “Why not make efforts to make information available easily so that people do not have to pursue it,” the prime minister asked.

He cited the example of the recent allocation of coal blocks, spectrum and FM radio stations through online auctions in a transparent manner.

“Anybody was free to witness the auction process. I do not think anybody will have to file RTI query seeking information of this process because what one would seek from a RTI query is already available,” Modi said.

He also stressed that RTI should be used to bring improvement in governance.

“If a question is asked by a citizen, there must be some issue in government that the need for question arose. A small RTI question can force you to change policy,” he said.

Modi said RTI should not be limited to right to know but it should empower every citizen to question those in power.