Citizens should be aware of what is happening: Chief Information Commissioner of India Heeralal Samariya

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMarch 3, 2024

Retired IAS officer and Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of India Heeralal Samariya asserted that RTI Act is a small one but a powerful act.

He was speaking at the National meet on RTI act on Saturday organised by Director General Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), an apex body of Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs).

“The citizen should know what is happening. We have to see who is taking decisions and they should be aware that their decisions are being watched,” he said adding that the applicants should be aware of the information that they want.

According to him, RTI achieves the efficiency in governance and informed that 18,000 appeals are received yearly.

Samariya informed that suo motu disclosure under Section 4 of the RTI Act is the most important.

He urged the ministries and departments to update the respective websites regularly at least once every 15 days.

“You should see that everything should be put up in the public domain,” Samariya said.

Samariya sounded peeved when he informed the audience that the governing body meetings are made confidential even though the government of India after its cabinet meetings inform the media about the decisions.

He asserted that agendas and decisions should be put up on public domain.