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The biggest users of RTI are Government employees: Kejariwal

Bhopal: The Government officials file the majority of applications received by the Central Information Commission (CIC) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. The cases of promotion, salary, transfer and related matters come in huge number before the Commission for hearing. These facts have been made public by O. P. Kejiriwal, member, Central Information Commission, New Delhi.

"Eighty per cent of applications filed before the CIC are from Government officials, either serving or retired", said the Central Information Commissioner.

Kejiriwal emphasized that the RTI Act, passed by the Parliament of India in the year 2005, overrides all the existing Acts of the land, even the Officials Secrets Act, 1923.

"The applicants should file in very short and crispy application instead of detailed description in order to save the time of Commission and the applicant himself/herself", Kejiriwal appealed.

The Information Commissioner was speaking at a Media Workshop organized on Right to Information at the Academy of Administration, Bhopal on Saturday. It was organized by Department of Journalism, Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism & Communication, Bhopal.

Speaking on the occasion Chief Information Commissioner of Madhya Pradesh State Information Commission, P. P. Tiwari said that there is a greater need of awareness among the people regarding this right.

“In coming days the facility to file an application through telephone under the RTI would be possible through out the country”, he said.

Although the Act has empowered the people at great extent but still there are so many hindrances in this regard, Tiwari added.

Comparing the functions of Central Information Commission with the Press Council of India, another major institution established by the act of Parliament, Achyutanand Mishra, a veteran Journalist and the Vice-Chancellor of Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism & Communication said, “Unlike the PCI, the CIC is empowered with the penalty chagrining authority”.


Published in

MyNews.in

January 21, 2008