Nagaland Voluntary Consumers’ Organisation (NVCO) president, Kezhokhoto Savi on October 8, stated that awareness on Right to Information (RTI) was still lacking in the state and that more disclosure was required with regard to various schemes and projects meant for villagers, especially the people below poverty line (BPL).
Speaking at the RTI week programme, Kezhokhoto stated that in 2015, NVCO in collaboration with Nagaland Information Commission carried out a study on use of RTI across Nagaland and its impact for the last 10 years.
“The study was not intensive, however, NVCO did it by way of conducting awareness campaigns, meetings and interviews in almost all the districts in Nagaland”, Kezhokhoto informed. In course of the study, he disclosed that NVCO found that several individuals and organisations were filing RTI applications “just for the sake of filing” and that they did not read and study the information obtained through the powerful Act.
“We came across the maximum misuse of funds in MNREGA, Public Distribution System (PDS), etc.”, he disclosed.
In this regard, he stressed that the public must be aware about the Act so that transparency and accountability can be questioned. While appreciating the government departments for maintenance of records with the implementation of RTI Act, NVCO stated that there were no improvements on corrupt practices, especially in public sectors.
The organisation stated that the government conducted several trainings for government employees, however, it claimed that they were least bothered to take initiatives to create awareness for the public.
NVCO also stated that the statement made by chief information commissioner, I. Meyionen Jamir on misuse of RTI in the state was true but also hurt the sentiments of “reasonable RTI applicants/activists” as they had “many success stories”.
In this regard, NVCO advised the department to take legal action upon any RTI applicant/activist found misusing RTI and that as per RTI Act, it was the duty of PIO/APIO to furnish all demanded documents/information within the time frame.
“If the department feels threatened to exposure then the department is not clean and transparent in their functions”, NVCO stated.
