Deccan Herald: New Delhi: Tuesday,
November 08, 2016.
Officials
must reply to every RTI query irrespective of the kind of information sought,
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said here on Monday.
During his
inaugural address at the 11th annual Central Information Commission (CIC)
convention, Singh described the RTI Act as a powerful medium of communication
between the people and the government. When people ask for such information,
the government gets new ideas for formulating people-friendly policies and
reform the governance system, he said.
“All of you
must understand the ecosystem of information, and without getting influenced by
what information is being sought, you must do your duty. The government system
should use it (RTI Act) effectively,” he said.
“Our system
needs to be corruption free, smart, sensitive, transparent and answerable for
making all the programmes of the government a success, and RTI can play an
important role in it. The RTI Act provides a strong foundation to the feeling
of trust and cooperation, which is important for governance,” Singh said.
Pitching for
active public participation, Singh said more people are now engaged in framing
policies, and over 40,000 suggestions were received on the Goods and Services
Tax.
Singh also
inaugurated CIC’s e-court system, which will make the transparency panel go
paperless in matters of appeals and complaints being processed by it.
“The more the
systems go digital, the better will be transparency. There is a need for a
digitally strong society,” he said.
The CIC has
already digitised around 1.5 lakh files. Citizens can check the status of the
cases and receive information on the date of appeal through emails and text
messages. Singh said the use of video conferencing by CIC will help reduce
pendency of cases. “This is a good facility for people living in far-flung
areas,” he said.
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