National Meet on RTI Act 2005 organised by SCOPE for CPSEs
New Delhi:SCOPE organized a National Meet on RTI Act, 2005 for Appellate Authorities, CPIOs and Nodal Officers of CPSEs at SCOPE Convention Centre, New Delhi on June 27. Mr. O.P. Rawat, IAS, Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), Mr. M.L. Sharma, Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission (CIC), Mr. O.P. Khorwal, Convener, RTI Steering Committee, SCOPE and Mr. B. Dhal, ED (P&A), SAIL addressed the participants. The message of Mr. C.S. Verma, Chairman, SCOPE & Chairman, SAIL was read in absentia, by Mr. B.Dhal. The National Meet was attended by a large number of Appellate Authorities, CPIOs and Nodal Officers of CPSEs from all parts of the country.
Mr. O.P. Rawat, Secretary, DPE in his address appreciated SCOPE for organizing such programmes on RTI for CPSEs. He said that these programmes are educative, informative and are helping public enterprises in honing the skills of their nodal officers to handle this Act. Mr. Rawat said the RTI Act is bringing transparency, accountability and efficiency in the working of PSEs and advised the officers not to get confused by ulterior motives. Secretary, DPE advised to respect the privacy of individuals but stressed on free flow of information to nurture democratic values and democratic governance in the country. The CPSEs Officers have full faith in this legislation, he added.
Mr. M.L. Sharma, Information Commissioner, CIC in his address said the RTI Act is a revolutionary legislation and is strengthening the democracy and the democratic government. It is a law to usher in transparency in public life and to help the government and instrumentalities accountable to the people.Mr. Sharma said the public sector culture is slightly different from the government culture. He pointed out that CPIOs in PSEs are hard pressed to collect information in a time frame and exhorted Appellate Authorities to share their burden in responding to RTI applications. He also appreciated that the programmes organized by SCOPE have immensely benefitted the CPSEs.
Mr. C.S. Verma, Chairman, SCOPE said the RTI Act has been playing a very important role in strengthening corporate governance in PSEs by promoting fairness, transparency, integrity, accountability and brand building. The SCOPE Steering Committee on RTI is coordinating with policy makers and highlighting issues of concerns of CPSEs with respect to the RTI Act, he added. The message of Mr. Verma was read in absentia.
The objective of the National Meet is to enable Appellate Authorities/PIOs/CPIOs and Nodal Officers of CPSEs gain better appreciation of the RTI Act and the issues involved in its effective implementation as well as to learn art of legal order writing
