Make RTI Act available in all Indian languages, says vice president

New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) Vice President Hamid Ansari Tuesday expressed concern over unavailability of information on the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, or the act itself in 22 official languages of India and said this needs to be addressed at the earliest. Ansari was speaking at the second and the concluding day of the 4th annual RTI convention oragnised by the Central Information Commission (CIC) here. The two-day convention is organized by the Central Information Commission and its theme this year was ‘Strengthening Right to Information’. ‘The website of the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions has the RTI Act in only 11 languages. The web sites of most information commissions are not multilingual covering the official languages adopted by the appropriate governments,’ he said while delivering his valedictory address. ‘For example, the CIC does not have a Hindi website for dissemination of information. Likewise, neither the RTI Act nor data on the web sites of Information Commissions of states where Urdu is the second official language are available in Urdu. This issue needs to be addressed at the earliest,’ he added. The vice president further said that empowerment would be meaningless if it is sought to be achieved through a language that the citizen does not understand. The RTI Act was passed by the central government in June 2005 after years of struggle by NGOs and civil society groups. It came into force October 12, 2005, and completed four years Monday. Ansari also raised concern over suo motto disclosure by the government authorities and about organisations that are covered under the definition of ‘public authority’ one way or another but have not come forward pro-actively to be covered by the act. He said that the previous conventions of the CIC came forth with an exhaustive list of recommendations. ‘I am not aware about the extent of acceptance and implementation of these recommendations by various stake holders. The collective outcome of a convention of information commissioners must be subject to serious deliberation and active consideration, with a view to appropriate implementation. I hope the results of this convention will also be seriously studied and lead to better implementation of the act,’ he added. ‘Far from being a nuisance to the process of governance, it is such dissatisfaction that propels government to improve its functioning, be sensitive and empathetic to the problems of citizens and ensures efficient allocation and spending of public resources,’ he said. The two-day convention is being attended by representatives of civil society and media, both from within the country and from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.