KATHMANDU, JUNE 19
Citizens have been organising and initiating collective campaign for seeking information of public importance by utilising the right given by the Right to Information Act.
A National Federation for RTI has been formed and it has started the campaign for the proper practice and use of RTI.
The Federation organised an interaction on promoting RTI and its practical use, in association with the National Information Commission here today.
NIC Chief Commissioner Mahendra Man Gurung said that action had been taken against 31 office chiefs for denying information of public importance. He said the commission had also written to the offices concerned not to promote and reappoint office chiefs facing such action.
"The Office of the Auditor General, which had stopped uploading the report on the arrears of the local levels in its website, has now started doing so after the commission's order. The public bodies should voluntarily publish information regarding the topics as stipulated by law within three months," Chief Commissioner Gurung said.
Gurung opined that a problem has been encountered in implementing the RTI as employees of the public bodies are made to take oath of confidentiality in the course of their appointment.
The NIC Chief Commissioner informed that they were going to publish a book facilitating information seekers who wanted to avail information of public importance. He added that preparations were on for publishing a similar book for information officers at public bodies.
RTI campaigner and former president of the Federation of Nepali Journalists Taranath Dahal described RTI as a useful tool for safeguarding democracy and promoting transparency and good governance. He urged conscious citizens to use this tool continuously, stressing the need to build pressure from the citizen's level for the implementation of RTI.
Federation President Umid Bagchand said that the federation has conducted the district convention in 35 districts so far and will do so in all the 77 districts by mid-August. He added that they were preparing to hold the national convention.
The Federation has also prepared to conduct training, both online and physically, for those interested in joining the practice of RTI. It is also working on a programme for making all the 753 local levels allocate budget and implement programmes for raising public awareness on RTI.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 20, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
