Bhubaneswar: ‘RTI on Wheels’, a three-day campaign to promote Right to Information Act, 2005 in the Twin Cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar was flagged off on the occasion of RTI Day here today.
Police Commissioner Satyajit Mohanty flagged off the ‘RTI on Wheels’ at Master Canteen Square in the presence of Additional Director of I&PR Department Niranjan Sethi, other dignitaries and hundreds of students.
The transparency law which came into force across the country on October 12, 2015 aims to create an informed citizenry and promote good governance, said Mohanty while launching the campaign organised by RTI Clinic, a city-based social forum.
On the occasion, a padayatra was also held from Master Canteen Square to Ram Mandir raising slogans on RTI.
According to the organisers, the awareness vehicle will travel with a team of experts in twin cities from October 12 to 14 and train people draft queries on development issues.
The campaign will include outreach programmes in public places including bus stands and markets, an official of RTI Clinic said.
The primary objective of the campaign is to empower people especially youths to get up and start asking questions.
People can put forward their questions to different government agencies on the matters most relevant to them through the initiative.
Right to Information (RTI) is an Act of the Parliament of India to provide for setting out the practical regime of the right to information for citizens and replaces the erstwhile Freedom of information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen of India may request information from a “public authority” (a body of Government or “instrumentality of State”) which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act also requires every public authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination and to proactively certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.
This law was passed by Parliament on June 15, 2005 and came fully into force on October 12, 2005. The first RTI application was filed at a police station in Pune by Shahid Raza Burney.
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