Vice Prez advocates exemplary punishment for those assaulting

Anguished over growing attacks on RTI activists, Vice President Hamid Ansari today said the person demanding information under the RTI "should be secure" and advocated exemplary punishment to those assaulting information seekers.
"The person demanding information under the RTI should be emboldened and secure. Of late, there have been reports of attack and assault on information seekers. This is disquieting and needs to be taken seriously and prevented," he said.
Ansari was addressing the inaugural ceremony of the New Building of Uttar Pradesh Information Commission here.
The Vice President said, "Even if the number of such reported cases is small, this shows the vulnerability of information seekers.

He asked police authorities in states to be sensitive to this and take effective steps to prevent the occurrence of such incidents.
"Exemplary punishment of the perpetrators would send a strong message around," he said.

Ansari said there was need for a sustained mass awareness campaign both at central and state levels to increase public awareness about the RTI and its operation, encourage citizen involvement, and increase transparency within the government.
The Information Commissions can play an important role in this regard, he said, noting that there was a need for greater voluntary disclosure of information held with public authorities.

"We have to rid ourselves of the old mindset regarding secrecy of government processes and transactions. Concerns have been expressed in some quarters that the disclosure of information inhibits free and open expression of opinion by government officials during the decision-making process. If the officials have approached the issues with honesty and in accordance with the rules, then this argument does not seem justified," he said.
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Ansari said while a total of 7.55 lakh RTI applications were received by the reporting public authorities in 2014-15, almost 90,000 RTI applications remained pending.
"The proportion of rejection of RTI, at 8.40 per cent of the total, also saw an increase in 2014-15 over the previous year's rejection. This is a cause for worry and must be examined," he said.

Describing RTI as a powerful tool that strengthens democracy, Ansari said it promotes good governance by enhancing the citizen's ability to participate in the process.
The legislative intent of the Right to Information was to empower citizens to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every Public Authority, reduce the gap between the information provider and the information seeker, enhance efficiency in administration of public authorities, mitigate corruption and promote good governance, he said.
The Vice President said there can be little doubt that this Act is one of the most empowering and progressive legislations passed in the post-Independent India.

"This Act provides for better governance, and impacts on the very nature of governance itself," he said.
Ansari said the basic tenets of the Act have been implemented, the institutional mechanisms are in place, and are being used by citizens as a tool to bring in transparency and accountability at all levels of Governance.
He said that while the Civil Society Organisations and Media can act as pressure points, most of the correctives need to be carried out by the Government and Information Commissions.
The Vice President said that while the civil society organisations and media can act as pressure points, most of the correctives need to be carried out by the government and Information Commissions.

"I understand that on average about 3,000 new appeals and complaints are filed before the UP Information Commission every month. This is a large figure even for a large state like UP and perhaps, indicative of the need for improving the quality of voluntary disclosure," he said.
The government of Uttar Pradesh deserves commendation for making budgetary provision to enable expeditious construction of the RTI building, he added.