Port Blair, Dec 21: The land mark RTI act brought out by the UPA government hailed as a powerful tool in the hands of common people at grassroot level in the Seminar on Right to Information and its impact on Transparency in Public Administration held on Friday as part of the ongoing Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign(PIC).
In his key note address supported by the Power point presentation, the RTI expert and Deputy Chief Engineer of Andaman and Lakshadweep Harbour works(ALHW) informed that the RTI act has brought the power to the people at the grass-roots and make the public administration more responsive to the needs of the people at grassroots. Citing an interesting example, he said an youngest RTI applicant of 12 years in the islands sought certain information from PBMC and APWD on the damaged condition of the road in his locality. The concerned departments acted immediately on his application and called the boy for personal hearing and subsequently got the road repaired in less than a month. As such, the RTI brings the much needed power to ordinary citizens of the country, he added.
He also conducted a Quiz contest for the participants and five winners were given away prizes by the Directorate of Field Publicity, a media unit of Information and Broadcasting.
The Nodal Officer (PIC), Dhanasekran and the Panchayat Samiti Pramuk, Namita Mistry also spoke on the occasion.
A number of people including government officials attended the workshop.(PIB)
