PASIGHAT, Oct 8: State Chief Information Commissioner Major General (Retd.) Jarken Gamlin held an awareness and interaction program on Right To Information (RTI) Act with public information officers (PIOs), assistant public information officers (APIOs) and concerned Head of Departments of East Siang district at Siang guest house on Tuesday.
He explained various sections of the RTI Act to members present, highlighting the role and responsibility of appellants and PIOs while discharging their duties under the Right to Information Act 2005 as well as RTI Act 2019.
“RTI is for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities in order to promote transparency and accountability but still there are challenges pertaining to RTI Act; sometimes public harasses the officers concerned which need to be addressed on table soon,” he added. He urged PIOs and APIOs to be very informative regarding RTI Act and also responsive while furnishing information to appellants.
The SCIC took queries on various issues related to RTI Act from HoDs and addressed them on the ‘dos and don’ts’ of appellants and PIOs.
East Siang Deputy Commissioner, T.Taggu in his address encouraged all PIOs and APIOs to avail the best knowledge out of the awareness program. “RTI Act enables transparency and accountability of government offices and it is also an important tool for common citizens to access information unless appellants use the RTI Act as tools to harass the officer concerned,” the DC said.