RTI implementation audit by students unveiled

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RTI implementation audit by students unveiled
as appeared in Mangalorean.com | 29.09.08

Bangalore Sept 29: In a bid to involve youth in civic participation,
Public Affairs Centre (PAC) brought together college students here to
bring out the success level of Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Act
envisages to bring about good governance and transparency in public
administration.

The study comes a fortnight ahead of the third anniversary of the
realisation of the RTI Act and presents the Information Officers'
perspective and their unique organisational experiences. These
findings were presented by the students who conducted the study at an
event held in the city yesterday. Mr K K Mishra, Chief Information
Commissioner, Karnataka State Information Commission, presided over
the event in which Mr Ralph Frammolino, Faculty, Indian Institute of
Journalism and New Media, Prof Samuel Paul, Founder-Chairperson, PAC
and Dr Gopakumar Thampi, Director, PAC participated.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof Paul said RTI was a powerful and
empowering tool. Unfortunately its awareness was very low. There was
also limited information on implementation of this critical piece of
legislation. ''With the youth constituting more than half of India's
population, their active participation in the governance of the
country becomes very crucial. This initiative is a very encouraging
sign of youth involvement,'' he said.

Elaborating on the study and key findings, Dr Thampi, Director, PAC,
stated that the audit was conducted for a two-fold purpose -- to shed
light on its implementation and to give the youth a hands-on
experience -- by actively participating on governance-related issues.

UNI

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