Port Blair, Apr 12: Lecture on Right to Information for Rotary Club members was held at Hotel Fortune Resort on 11/4/15. Mr .T.N Krishnamoorthi, Deputy Chief Engineer, RTI consultant and transparency officer, ALHW spoke on the topic “How the Right to Information Act helps Business Community”. He said The Right to Information Act (RTI) is an Act of the Parliament of India “to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens” Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may request information from a “public authority” (a body of Government or “instrumentality of State”) which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. It is also defined in the Act that bodies or authorities established or constituted by order or notification of appropriate government including bodies “owned, controlled or substantially financed” by government, or non-Government organizations “substantially financed, directly or indirectly by funds” provided by the government are also covered in the Act. Right to Information Act 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information.Mr. T.N Krishnamoorthi said the basic objective of the Right to Information Act is to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain corruption, and make our democracy work for the people in real sense. It goes without saying that an informed citizen is better equipped to keep necessary vigil on the instruments of governance and make the government more accountable to the governed. The Act is a big step towards making the citizens informed about the activities of the Government. The lecture ended with a volley of questions from the rotary members which was all answered by him and ended with a very good interactive session.
Before the programme a two minutes silence was observed for the departed souls of Late. Rtn.Yacoob Mohammedy, the charter President of our club, Late Rtn. Narayanan Ayyappan Nair, who was also a charter member and father of Dr.Poonam Arora and father –in-Law of Rtn. Girish Arora. Late Mr. Ravinder Jugpal, husband of Mrs.Kamal Jugpal. PP Rtn Mohd Jadwet had a word of appreciation for Late Rtn. Yacoob Mohammedy for his contribution in the Rotary Club, and said Jadwet family has lost a senior family member. PP Rtn .Girish Arora had also highlighted the contribution towards Rotary Club by Late Mr. Narayanan Ayyappan Nair.
