Murder of RTI activists an emerging threat to transparency:CIC

"There is one emerging threat of the murder of those who tried to reach out to attack those with vested interests in different states through the use of RTI Act. The RTI brotherhood needs to develop defensive mechanism," he said.

Habibullah was speaking at the inauguration of fifth Convention on RTI with the theme "RTI: Challenges and Opportunities", which began here this morning.

The Chief Information Commissioner, who will be demitting office on September 30 after a successful stint of five years, said one of the major challenges before the transparency regime is the monitoring of "full operationalisation" of section four of the RTI Act which mandates proactive disclosure of information by government departments.

"One challenge is full operationalisation of the section four...wider implication of operationalisation of section four means ease of access of information, transparency and accountability. This means without causing any dislocation of the person seeking information," he said.

Habibullah urged the Department of Personnel and Training to look into the issue of monitoring the implementation of section four of the RTI Act.
"The Commission to some extent has powers to monitor the implementation of section four of the RTI Act but these are advisory in nature," he said.
The Central Information Commission has been organising the Annual Convention every year since 2006.

The two-day convention will have five technical sessions covering major aspects of Right to Information (RTI) in which issues such as RTI and Public Private Partnership (PPP) Projects, Responsibility of Political Leadership in promoting RTI, RTI and Judiciary, Challenges and Opportunities in RTI – Role and Responsibility of Media/Civil Society Organisations, RTI and Unique Identification Project- Possibilities, will be discussed.
The present convention is being attended by representatives of civil society and media, both from within the country and from SAARC countries.

During the convention, a monograph carrying experiences of stakeholders from all sections in regard to the implementation of the transparency law has been released.
The first such documents was brought on the occasion of National Convention on RTI in 2006 and the present monograph is the second in series. The monograph documents the report and recommendations of two of the conventions of this Commission.