The enactment of the Right to Information Act 2005 at the Centre and in many States has bridged a critical gap in the public decision making process and ushered in greater accountability of public servants.

According to this Act, every citizen in the country can now seek and receive information from any government office (with a few exceptions like notified intelligence and security agencies).

However the ground reality is somewhat different. In many states, the governments are not fully prepared to meet the information requests from citizens for a variety of reasons - officers have not been designated at all levels to deal with information requests; circulars relating to implementation of the Act have not been issued in all departments at all levels; receipt books are not available to enable collection of fees; proactive disclosure documents -a statutory obligation- have not been prepared by all departments, etc. With a view to create awareness and basic knowledge about RTI among the people, MICCI is organising four seminars on Right to Information.