RTI is for transparency, not for personal benefits: Assam Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Assam Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary said that the RTI (Right to Information) Act is for transparency, but a section uses it for personal benefits. "This practice has to go, and the public should be more aware of the Act," he said.

Inaugurating the North-East Information Commission conference and launching the website of the Assam Information Commission today, the Speaker said, "The RTI Act is an important piece of legislation with a great purpose to serve. The purpose of the Act is to provide important information sought by the public. It aims to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority and to contain corruption. However, a section of people in the guise of RTI activists takes advantage of it. They seek information through RTI in all subjects to sub-serve their interest."

He said, "The public has the habit of sticking to old habits. They don't give importance to any new system at the initial stage, and RTI is no exception. I favour an awareness workshop for the MLAs by the Information Commission. We need to make RTI popularize among the students as they are future leaders of the country. All issues don't come under the ambit of RTI. The commission needs to make this known among the public."

On the website launched, Rout said, "It will enable the public to get online petitions, avail of online hearing, online status of application etc. Assam is among the top on the disposal of applications."

Besides State Chief Information Commissioner AP Rout, Information Commissioner Samudra Gupta Kashyap, Meghalaya Chief Information Commission H Nongpluh, Nagaland Chief Information Commissioner IN Jamir, Manipur in-charge Chief Information Commissioner Oinam Sunil Singh, Mizoram Information Commissioner Zorammaiwa and Arunachal Information Commissioner Sonam Yudron were present at the conference.

At the technical session, the participants discussed various issues related to the speedy disposal of the second appeals on RTI applications that come to the state information commissions and raising awareness on the Act among the citizens for better use of the RTI Act.

The Assam Information Commission received as many as 18,025 applications and disposed of 17,888 from April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022. It received the highest number of 2,656 applications related to the Education Department, 1,888 related to P & RD, 832 to the Agriculture department, 751 to PHE and 619 to Irrigation etc., during the period.

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