AGRATALA, March 26 (TIWN): Tripura Information commission and SIPARD jointly on Saturday organised a day long workshop of Right to Information at Pragna Bhawan.

The workshop was organised with the aim to make people more aware about the emphasis of the Right to information act to the common people.

Addressing the workshop the dignitaries said that Right to Information Act 2005 mandates timely response to citizen requests for government information.

It is an initiative taken by Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions to provide a– RTI Portal Gateway to the citizens for quick search of information on the details of first Appellate Authorities, PIOs etc. amongst others, besides access to RTI related information / disclosures published on the web by various Public Authorities under the government of India as well as the State Governments

The basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain corruption, and make our democracy work for the people in real sense.

It goes without saying that an informed citizen is better equipped to keep necessary vigil on the instruments of governance and make the government more accountable to the governed. The Act is a big step towards making the citizens informed about the activities of the Government.

The Right to Information Act (RTI) is an Act of the Parliament of India "to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens" and replaces the erstwhile Freedom of information Act, 2002. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may request information from a "public authority" (a body of Government or "instrumentality of State") which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days.

The Act also requires every public authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination and to proactively certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally. This law was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 12 October 2005.

However, among the dignitaries election commissioner GK Rao, Maddirala Nagaraju,IAS Secretary of Industry, Health Govt of Tripura along with others remained present in the program.