Nagaland Civil Secretariat officers attend RTI training

Kohima, May 2 (MExN): A one day training programme on Right to Information Act 2005 for the First Appellate Authorities, Public Information Officers and Assistant Public Information Officers for the Nagaland Civil Secretariat was held on April 29 at the Nagaland Civil Secretariat Conference Hall with 64 officers.  

Chief Secretary to the Government of Nagaland, Pankaj Kumar IAS shared about his experiences with RTI, how it is going and how it will be in the future. He stressed on the need for proactive disclosure as given in Section 4 of the RTI Act. ‘The RTI makes us closer to the public and public servants should give out information and not answer questions’, he said. He also impressed upon the participants to learn the proper way of file noting as in the future people will read what they have written and consider whether, whatever they have written makes sense. He also mentioned that government servants should write and not assume that other people will know. Though the misuse of RTI is comparatively less in Nagaland, he said people may misuse it and hence public authorities should not allow such things to happen.

The topics taken up on this day were, Overview of the RTI Act 2005 by Lithrongla G. Chishi, Director ATI, Responsibilities of PIOs and APIOs by Dr. Hovithal Sothu, Deputy Director ATI, Role of Appellate Authority by Dr. A W. Longchar, Librarian ATI, and Appeals and Penalties by Worhonthung Ezung, Secretary, Nagaland Information Commission. Question and Answer time was taken up by Worhonthung and Hovithal. Constructive suggestions were also given by participants.  

The valedictory function was graced by the Chief Information Commissioner, Nagaland Information Commission Toshi Aier, IAS (Rtd). While sharing about the position Nagaland is in, he also mentioned that the major chunk of the state’s budget goes for salary of government servants. Taking over as CIC a month ago, he mentioned that he has already taken up 10 cases, and expressed the need for the Appellate Authorities and PIOs to be more dedicated in giving out information to the citizens.  

The programme was coordinated by Dr.Hovithal Sothu.