Workshop on RTI Act

Times of India: Aurangabad: Tuesday, 01 December 2015.

Chamber of Marathwada Industries and Agriculture and Aastha Foundation, Aurangabad jointly organized a workshop on Right to Information Act (RTI) Act, on November 23, at CMIA Conference Hall in which C J Karira, RTI Activist and expert guided the participants.

Hyderabad based RTI expert CJ Karira who helps people file RTIs for free said, "Right to Information is a fundamental right and it has been judicially recogonised as part of Article 19(1)(a) of Indian Constitution. All Citizens shall have the right to freedom of Speech and Expression. For proper enjoyment of freedom of Speech and expression, it is imperative that correct information is available to the citizens."

Karira is basically an engineer from BITS Pilani and did MBA from London School of Business. He used RTI in 2007 for first time and got back his long pending VAT fund with Commercial Taxes Department of Andhra Pradesh. This incidence kindled his interest in RTI and since then he has guided nearly 30,000 citizens to use RTI effectively.

He said that information of any material in any form can be sought under RTI including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force -Section 2(f).

"The RTI Act covers central, state and local governments, and all bodies owned, controlled or substantially financed; non-government organisation substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government (Sec 2(h)). It also covers executive, judiciary and legislature and includes information relating to private bodies which can be accessed under any other law for the time being in force (Sec 2(f))," he said.

"Karira is a regular speaker at RTI seminars and has given more than 250 lectures all over the country. He has trained over 2500 Public Information Officers in various provisions of RTI,''said CMIA president Ashish Garde.