IMPHAL October 5: The decadal Right to Information Week Celebration 2015 was launched today at the MFDC hall with the Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam as the chief guest and the president of the function.
The programme was organized by the Manipur Information Commission under the leadership of its new Commissioner Th Ibobi Singh. This is the first instance for the Manipur Information Commission to partake in the annual weeklong celebration since its inception in 2006 September.
The event was hosted with sponsorship from Department of Personnel & Training Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pension, GoI.
Despite the long list of invitees read out by the host inclusive of both Governmental and Civil bodies the response was very poor clearly indicating the discomfort of the SPIOs in supporting such a radical shift towards transparency and accountability in governance.
The Deputy Chief Minister in his speech talk about the lack of seriousness for such an important learning session and said, `We might be speaking to empty chairs while the stakeholders missed the chance of getting more knowledge through the learned resource persons`
Nevertheless the Chief Minister enthusiastically supported the initiative of the Information Commission office and appeal to all departments and officials to extend support in pursuance of bringing a better more transparent and accountable governance in the State.
It was followed by two technical sessions with eminent resource person Dr Ch Narendra Singh, Advocate whose expertise on the subject flowed as a lively education to the audience on two themes namely `The Historical perspective of RTI`™ and `Right to Information and the Right to be informed`™
He narrates the epistemology of the Act, especially the pressure build by campaigns of civil society organizations and landmark judgments which ultimately resulted in the passing of the RTI Act in 2005. `Such Act was already in place in Scandinavian Countries since 1776` he said.
He said, unfortunately there are very few who dares to ask questions and information since we are still wrapped in the mindset of bureaucrats ruling in secrecy. And even the few attempts are equally responded with a reluctance to share information by the authorities even if they are not sheltered by the erstwhile Official Secret Act anymore.
He defines information in RTI as, `Information is any material in any form. It includes records, documents, memos, emails, opinions advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form.
It also includes information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force`
He explains and interprets the legality of the RTI Act further in terms of accessibility, `A citizen has the right to obtain material which also includes inspection of work, documents, records, taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records, taking certified samples of materials, taking information in the form of diskettes, tapes video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through print outs`
He inform the audience that RTI Act is applicable to seek information related to status of applications, evaluated answer sheets and marks besides governmental programmes, beneficiary list, budget, orders etc.
The interactive session stretch on the need to pursue for pro active disclosure (suo moto) towards fulfilling the core objective of the Act as specified in Section 4 of the Act which was meant to be complied within 120 days since its inception in 2005.
These includes procedures followed in decision making, details of consultative committees and other bodies, budgets and list of beneficiaries among others with regular updates to encourage sharing of information to the public towards transparency and accountability in governance.
According to a presentation of the department by S Inao Singh, Dy Registrar, 1408 RTI applications were received and 1297 cases disposed as on 23 of September 2015 with a pending case of 113 at present.
In his paper titled `A case study of the implementation of RTI Act in Manipur`™ he quotes cases where dept action against erring officials including service termination was evoked along with compensation to the applicants.
TH Ibobi Singh, SCIC,MIC who took charge this May after the commission remain defunct for more than two years responded to a concern raised by a RTI Activist about threats in the aftermath of seeking crucial information involving Ministers, `The SPIOs are not supposed to disclosed the name of the applicants. They could have responded to the information sought without disclosing the particulars which can lead to various form of harassing and discouraging this transparency practice`. He also shared about the role of the State Information Commission in facilitating the RTI applicants.
As part of the decadal celebration of this landmark RTI Act 2005, the Manipur Information Commission has scheduled a line of educative interactive programmes for the next few days with a culmination on 12 of October at the State Guest House, Imphal.