RTI-MILESTONE IN THE HISTORY OF INDIAN DEMOCRACY

“Even Ten rupees has the power to change the foresight of a common man (Aam Admi)”

It is very true that after five decades of independence we got Right to Information. The UPA government in the year 2005 has enacted this act as 22^nd act of the year and it came in to force from 12^th October in the same year. The law is applicable to whole of India except Jammu and Kashmir. According to the public authorities are those which are established by Constitution, established by the act of the Parliament or state legislature and bodies and committees of the government and organizations fully or partially funded by the government.

 After enacting this act we are finding many changes in the social paradigm of our country. The main purpose of this act is to make best use of government programs which are exclusively for the empowerment of underprivileged.  Sec.4 (1) and 4(1)(b) provides chance to get Suo-Motu (Self declaration) of every department. Under 6(1) we can get specific information of any department. Every department should provide the information sought by the applicant within 30 days. Failure leads to heavy punishment. This act established Central Information Commission and State Information Commission to look after the effective implementation of this act.

This act is playing an instrumental role in reducing the corruption, improving accountability and bringing transparency in governance. Totally we can say that whole corrupt system will collapses and build a strong and capable administrative system in our country. But at the same time the public should make best use this act. Many success stories reveals that even the highest man also cannot misuse this act. The real effort to bring our under privileged people to the main stream of the society has started with the enactment of this act. We can say that it is protecting the democratic principles and promoting the welfare state concept in our country. This act is fulfilling the broad objectives of our Constitution. That’s why government of India and all state governments are keenly enforcing the act.