Advisor for Information Technology and Communication, Vikho-o Yhoshü on Friday launched a three month long Right to Information (RTI) awareness campaign in Kohima targeting colleges under the theme “Youth for transparency and good governance”.
Vikho-o said the targeted group, i.e. the youth should act as agents of change and bring about positive changes.
Stating that RTI Act opens linkage between the government and people, Vikho-o Yhoshü said the act should be a challenge and encouragement to the government to stand up to the demands of the people.
RTI should be the most welcomed legislation to know about government and participation in governance, he said while pointing out the discomfort of government machineries in response to RTI.
However, Yhoshü also underlined that RTI should not be misused by people or used as a vengeance against people. Director of YouthNet, Hekani Jakhalu said RTI awareness campaign could be a turning point for the state, and added that if the campaign was successful, something historical would come out of it.
She informed the campaign would last for three months starting October 2011 to January 2012, during which RTI team of experts would visit all 14 colleges in Kohima. She encouraged the gathering to draft RTI application to any department in the state and submit it to YouthNet, at the same time appealed to the government to be more proactive in responding to RTI queries and promote transparency and accountability.
The RTI campaign is a government initiative jointly organized by Administrative Training Institute in partnership with YouthNet under the direction of department of Personnel and Training, Government of India.
Any student or youth can submit RTI application addressed to any government department and submit it to Youthnet through drop boxes placed at Naga Paper Agency, High School; Seasons’ Café, Bunny Studio at Town Area and Big Bite, Jail Colony Kohima.
The applications received in the drop boxes will be submitted by YouthNet to the departments concerned. Liberty shall lie with the applicant on preference of anonymity or otherwise. Some of the beat questions of the week will be published in local dailies, while a page for bloggers will also be opened called “youth for transparency” in Facebook.
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