State Govt prepares for Right to Info Act

Dimapur, sept 13 (MExN): As a preparatory step before the Right to Information Act, 2005 passed recently on June 15 by Parliament becomes operational in Nagaland, the State Government will jointly organize a brainstorming workshop on September 17 at ATI, Kohima. The one day workshop in partnership with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative is mainly to prepare the administrative heads, heads of departments and other public authorities to enable them to meet their obligations under the newly enacted Right to Information Act. According to a press communiqué issued by Secretary Information & Public Relations, two prominent resource persons from the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Delhi, will conduct the workshop.

It may be mentioned that the Right to Information Act was recently passed in Parliament on June 15. Within 120 days of its enactment, the Act will be fully operational. Both the Central and the State government except the State of Jammu & Kashmir are bound by the Act. The Act makes it mandatory on the part of the government to provide information if asked by citizens. Except the information which has been exempted by the Act, all other information has to be provided to the citizens when they ask for it.

Further, as per the Act, the required number of Public Information Officers and Assistant Public Information Officers along with one State Chief Information Officer are to be appointed and put in place latest by October 12, 2005. The annual reports about the implementation of the Act are also to be laid before the Legislative Assembly.The coming workshop on September 17 is expected to help sensitize State government officials with the provisions of the new Act. More importantly, the chief objective of the Act is to bring about transparency and accountability in the administration by transforming the people themselves as watchdogs of the administration.

The workshop to be conducted has been described as ‘very important and of urgent nature’. The Chief Secretary would also be attending the workshop, it was informed