Seminar on Right to Information Act 2009

Right to Information: Benefits and Challenges

Northern University Bangladesh Youth Engagement and Support (NUBYES) and Transparency international Bangladesh (TIB) have jointly arranged a seminar on Right to Information Act 2009 titled Right to information: Benefits and Challenges. The program was arranged in the Northern University Bangladesh (NUB) Business Campus on July 18, 2010. Professor M. A. Razzaque, the acting Vice-Chancellor of NUB was the chief guest in the program. Professor Dr. Abdul Awal Khan, Dean of Business faculty, was present as the special guest in the seminar. The key note paper was presented by Dr. Mohammad Ekramol Islam, Associate professor and advisor of NUBYES. Ms. Kanij Fatema (senior lecturer,DBA,NUB) and Sazzadul Islam (Senior Program Coordinator of TIB) also gave their valuable speech.

Ms. Kanij Fatema said, the act is very important for the development of Bangladesh. Our country was in first position in corruption for five times. We do not want to be champion in this respect. We want to be corruption free. This act is very powerful weapon for decreasing corruption. We have to use it properly.

Dr. Mohammad Ekramol Islam, in his paper, mentioned the benefits and challenges of this act. He also mentioned that, we are a lucky nation to have a law like this and now we need to use it for our betterment. Who has more information he is very powerful. We have the right to know the information how the government is working for us. In RTI Act we have a process to know information from the authority. First we can apply for the particular information to the particular office. That office will be bound to give the information if it is not a matter which is mentioned to be kept secret. In the part of benefits he mentioned the benefits like, the government cannot reject any application fully, it will help to reduce corruption, the organizations hide their information can easily be detected, the government will keep records of all activities etc. In the challenge part he mentioned that we do not still have the mentality to give information, the Information Commission does not have enough human resource to do all the activities, the population is not educated and also not aware about the act, the use of information technology, time limit of the information to be given etc.

Sazzadul Islam said, there are more than 85 countries that have established RTI in their country. In South Asia, India is in good position in applying the act and then

comes Bangladesh. India has made a good improvement using the law since 2005 when the law was passed in their country. Bangladesh is already five years back in passing the law in the amendment. Using the law India is benefited highly, if we practice this law properly in our country, we can also be benefited by this.

Professor Abdul Awal Khan said, before establishing the act, there were some transparent leaders in our subcontinent. They were, Jowhur Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi etc. They were wealthier before sitting in the post of prime minister. So it is time to establish our self-transparency by following the right to information act. Though it is very challenging, but it is possible. The program was attended by around 120 students and faculties of Northern University Bangladesh. All expected that we will see the benefits of the act by overcoming the challenges to the success of the act. Around thirty members of NUBYES made the program successful.