Andhra Pradesh Information Commission and Centre for Good Governance (CGG) have organized a Familiarization Programme on Right to Information Act for the newly appointed Information Commissioners.
Shri Pankaj Dwivedi, IAS, Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh interacted with the Information Commissioners on 22.05.2012. The Chief Secretary released a book titled "Public Information Officers and their Role under the RTI Act", authored by Shri Srinivas Madhav, CGG, Hyderabad. The pocket book is a ready reckoner for any Public Information Officer in the state.
The Chief Secretary assured full support of the Government to the cause of RTI. He emphasized the need for imparting periodical refresher courses to officers with new developments, new case-laws, new rulings on RTI etc.
Another book, titled "Exemptions under the RTI Act: A Primer" was also released on the day by Mr. Jannat Hussain, State Chief Information Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh Information Commission. This book, also authored by Shri Srinivas Madhav, deals with the most complex part of implementation of the RTI Act, i.e., application of exemptions by the Public Information Officers. This book will be helpful to the Public Information Officers in striking a balance between disclosure of information and application of exemptions. This book is the first of its kind in India.
Dr. Phani Kumar, IAS, Director General of CGG, Shri Srinivas Madhav, author of the books, Shri Manas Ranjan Kar, Smt. J. Lakshmi and Smt. G. Padma of the RTI Centre of CGG also participated in the meeting.
