This week is being observed and focusing on Vigilance awareness but it is
imperative that we need to be ever so vigilant every day of the year to
ensure that Good Governance is the order of the day. It has been 15 long
years since the Right to Information Act came into force on October
12th 2005. But
over these years however the greater challenge has been the actual
implementation of the Act. Unless the RTI Act is further strengthened Good
Governance, Transparency in the Administration and Zero Tolerance to
Corruption will never be a reality.
The Right to Information Act has been hailed as the hallmark of our
democracy. The Act aims at making the government transparent and more
accountable. The effective use of it would, in the long run, curb
corruption. Right to Information Act has become a powerful tool in exposing
corruption at all levels of government. Democracy and non-transparency in
the functioning of the Government cannot co-exist. Besides freedom of
speech without access to information is meaningless. For the common man,
getting correct and accurate information under the Right to
Information Act is today still a far cry.
Under Section 4 of the RTI Act all public authorities are duty bound to
regularly display on their website a wide range of information, including
all relevant facts while formulating important policies or announcing the
decisions which affect the public. This proviso in the law was enacted to
reduce the need for filing individual RTI applications. But this mandatory
duty has been blatantly flouted by the authorities with most government
websites themselves dysfunctional or not updated.
We need to battle it out and cannot allow the RTI Act to be choked by the
government to a slow death. Steps need to be taken to strengthen the
transparency regime that was sought to be established as envisaged by
the RTI Act. Effective implementation of the RTI Act requires political
commitment from the very top. Governance by cloak of secrecy and
opaqueness needs to be strongly resisted. It cannot be a hush-hush regime.
We need to dismantle those walls of secrecy that continue to hound
transparency and good governance.
Aires Rodrigues
Advocate High Court
C/G-2, Shopping Complex
Ribandar Retreat,
Ribandar – Goa – 403006
Mobile No: 9822684372
Office Tel No: (0832) 2444012
Email: airesrodrigu...@gmail.com
Or
airesrodrig...@yahoo.com
You can also reach me on
Facebook.com/ AiresRodrigues
Twitter@rodrigues_aires
www.airesrodrigues.com
