PESHAWAR:Commissioner Bannu Division Arshad Khan on Thursday said that the Right to Information (RTI) Act had protected people’s right to information about their resources.
He expressed these views while addressing a two-day training session on RTI Act in the Committee Room of Commissioner Bannu Division Office here today.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was the first province, he said, that enacted this law to protect legal rights of it’s people.
On the occasion, Commissioner Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information (RTI) Commission Riaz Khan Daudzai said that implementation of RTI Act 2013 gave every citizen the right to information to make a transparent government and administration more responsible.
The main purpose of the act was to provide information to citizens, to curb corruption and to promote accountability of every public authority, he added.
The RTI Commissioner further said that good governance means that processes and institutions produce results that make the best use of resources while meeting the needs of the society.
The concept of performance, Daudzai said, in the context of good governance also covers sustainable use of natural resources and protection of the environment.
Until 2013, citizens in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa did not have access to any information that was acted upon by any government agency. The implementation of the RTI Act had improved the system of public institutions, he stressed.
He urged the public information officers to respond to the RTI applications in a timely manner to facilitate the applicants.
Discussing the implications of the RTI Act, he said that the RTI Act empowers people against administrative corruption, irregularities and irresponsible behavior of the administrative machinery.
At the end of the session, Commissioner Bannu distributed certificates among the officers who had completed the training.