Need and Making of RTI Act in India

Need and Making of RTI Act in India

            The architects of freedom struggle of India had envisioned India to be a truly democratic India, both in letter and spirit. They imagined every Indian to be equal stakeholder in the development of the country. That could be possible only if all the countrymen were empowered and well-informed citizens. So, need for some mechanism to transform common man into an empowered-informed member of Indian society was always felt and efforts from time to time were made to accomplish this aim.

            In independent India, the history of right to information campaign dates back as early as 1948, the year of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UDHR Declaration grants the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to see, receive government working as it empowers the government officers to disclose information according to their whims and fancies. Many ministries and departments of governments have multiple PIOs which creates confusion for the applicant. RTIA is a state subject and there is no central agency to control or co-ordinate functioning of various State Commissions. Consequently there is no uniformity in practices being followed in various States and sometimes contradictory interpretations and orders are passed by individual State Commissions. Despite the provisions of the Act in section 4 (1), there is no visible change in record keeping mechanism at various levels. Budgetry allocations for the smooth functioning of various organs of the RTIA machinery are conspicuous by their absence. Observes Roberts “Commissions have been rendered toothless by the resource and manpower crunch”. The consistent demand to amend the RTIA from various quarters, especially the bureaucrats and the politicians, is yet another attempt to weaken it.