The India Street Opinion on the Right to Information Act in India

By Vipin Agnihotri

After a long struggle, people of India have been able to win the right to be informed and know about the decisions that the government takes on their behalf. But The India Street believes that the age-old bureaucracy, hell-bent on protecting their vested interest is doing everything to deny important information to the people.

For 60 long years the politicians and the bureaucrat of India have been exercising control over the people, now when they have become answerable to the people, they feel awkward. In my opinion, they are just not able to digest the fact that a common man has the right to demand an answer from them.

Some work needs to be done in implementing the Right to Information Act in India. It is worth mentioning in this regard that the Bihar government has done a noteworthy job on this particular aspect. This can be adopted across the country as a role model. In Bihar people don’t have to travel to the government offices with their requests, they have an access to information through telephone. As a matter of fact, you can even record your questions through the phone and the information reaches you by post.

According to experts, Right to Information Act has increased transparency and accountability in the government. For example, officials who used to dilly-dally earlier are now easily giving the information to people. Many departments are fully transparent; a few of them are still resisting change.

There are some indications that government is interested in bringing some amendments to the Right to Information Act. The main factor, which is hampering the progress of Right to Information Act, is the fact that the commission has been filled with bureaucrats. Because of this, social activists, lawyers and intellectuals have not been given there due space in the process.

There is a provision in the Right to Information Act, which says that the government should willingly on its own give information about its functioning but this aspect is not yet being followed. We have a long way to go, but at least it is a start.

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