Vice president M. Hamid Ansari inaugurated an official knowledge portal here on Friday for providing academic and advisory assistance to people on right to information.
Speaking on the occasion, the vice president said that the Right to Information Act represented a legislative recognition of the view of the Supreme Court that the right to information was a fundamental right under the Constitution.
“It was also an acceptance by the executive that it is answerable to the people not just once in five years but every time an RT application is filed, which is hundreds of times a day. It has given a new meaning to citizen engagement with governance.”
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Mr. Ansari said that the Act imposed new obligations on all stakeholders. “The government is called upon to be more transparent and accountable in decision and policy making, and manage its records better. The civil society is expected to be an informal clearing house for information to help common citizen to understand and use this new instrumentality.”
Referring to the portal, he noted that taking the message of Right to Information to the citizens in their own language was the first step in meaningfully empowering them.
Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan, who presided, said that the Right to Information Act was a critical land mark in citizen-centric legislation. It empowered people from the lower strata of society towards breaking the secrecy of administration. The full potential of the Act was yet to be realised. The public and the non-governmental organizations needed to be given adequate knowledge and skill to use its provisions.
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Governor R. S. Gavai presided. Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs M. Vijayakumar and Thiruvananthapuram Mayor C. Jayan Babu felicitated.
The portal, developed by the Institute of Management in Government, can be accessed at rti.img.kerala. gov.in