Friends, The National RTI Forum organized a two hour Seminar on 20th March 2010 at IIM Lucknow, Sitapur Road, Lucknow from 11 AM to 1 PM. The topic of the Seminar was- "RTI Act and the view of the State Legislators". The people were welcomed by Dr Manoj Pandey, Secretary, LUACTA. It was followed by an introductory presentation on the RTI Act and its various facets by me. I particularly emphasized upon the goal of transparency and accountability of the RTI Act. I also dwelt at length about the section 8(1)(a) to 8(1)(j) of the Act under which various Information can be withheld and the way these sections are presumably misused by the public authorities in denying information. I quoted three examples of Satish Shetty, Poone, Shashidhar Mishra, Begusarai and Venkatesh of Eeranapalya who have been murdered exactly for being RTI activists calling them "RTI Martyrs". This was followed by Anup Sanda, MLA, Sultanpur. He narrated his own experiences as a social worker and was quite in consonance with the woes of the RTI activists saying that there was a huge delay in the Information being disseminated to the RTI activists. He emphasized upon the need for having much stringent penalties for the public authorities violating the provisions of law. Sri Siddharth Shankar (MLA, Malihabad) said that RTI is a Fundamental Right. He said there was a huge red-tapism that needed to be removed immediately. He wanted the officials to be personally responsible for the derelictions. Vivek Singh (MLA Banda) said that with RTI Act even the common masses have acquired the rights previously limited to the National and State Legislators. RTI is the ultimate weapon to control the belligerent MLAs and MPs. He said that when even the Hon'ble Supreme Court had to bow down before the might of the RTI Act then what is to be said of the ordinary public authorities. Sanjeev Dwivedi, MLC emphasized upon the relevance and importance of RTI Act in day-to-day life of common masses. Yashwant Singh (MLC) said that RTI is a big weapon and we must all use it properly. Mata Prasad Pandey, ex Speaker of UP Vidhan Sabha said that he as a part of legislature would try his best to make amendments wherever there are lacunae in the Act. He wanted such changes to be made which would make its provisions more binding over the public authorities and more detrimental. Among those present, Pooja Sikera asked about the possibilities of making RTI more effectively in the rural areas. RTI Activist Akhilesh Saxena came up with many important suggestions for amendments where he felt the Act was lacking behind. Mahendra Singh of Project Vijay asked about some issues pertaining to a private University related to RTI Act. Dev Dutt Sharma raise issues related to the present State Election Commissioner Ranjit Pankaj and asked the State legislator's support on that. More than hundred RTI activists and social workers participated in the Seminar. Dr Nutan Thakur, Convenor of the Forum, thanked the audience in the end asking them all to work for the cause of RTI in a better way. She also requested the present State legislators to do something in the way of increasing the number of employees in the State Information Commission so that the burden of the SIC is reduced to which the Legislators agreed and assured to bring this matter in the forthcoming Assembly session. Dr Mukesh Mishra conducted the program. We, from the Forum, are planning to have another Seminar soon on any burning topic related with RTI Act. I request you all to kindly assist us by providing some of your extremely valuable suggestions.
Regards, Amitabh Thakur IPS, IIM Lucknow, # 94155-34526
