It has been 15 long years since the Right to Information Act came into force on October 12, 2005. But over these years however the greater challenge has been the actual implementation of the Act. Unless the RTI Act is further strengthened good governance, transparency in the administration and zero tolerance to corruption will never be a reality.
The Right to Information Act aims at making the government transparent and more accountable. The effective use of it would, in the long run, curb corruption. For the common man, getting correct and accurate information under the Right to Information Act is today still a far cry.
Under Section 4 of the RTI Act all public authorities are duty bound to regularly display on their website a wide range of information, including all relevant facts while formulating important policies or announcing the decisions which affect the public. But this mandatory duty has been blatantly flouted by the authorities with most government websites themselves dysfunctional or not updated.
We need to battle it out and cannot allow the RTI Act to be choked by the government to a slow death. Effective implementation of the RTI Act requires political commitment from the very top. Governance by cloak of secrecy and opaqueness needs to be strongly resisted. It cannot be a hush-hush regime. We need to dismantle those walls of secrecy that continue to hound transparency and good governance.
AIRES RODRIGUES, Ribandar
