We look at right to information act as a major weapon to fight corruption and ensure good governance by establishing accountability at different tiers of government.

The present government is well-positioned to be taking a concrete action along the line for two reasons: first, it is in steps with the directional thrust on reforming the discredited system of governance traditionally riddled with corruption and abuse of power feeding on lack of accountability, answerability and transparency across the board. There is no doubt that access to information is pivotal to good governance based on transparency and accountability of public conduct. Secondly, a draft law is already in hand to work on and give a final shape to.

Right to information act has two mutually reinforcing aspects: first, it gives citizens the legal right to secure information; secondly, it empowers the press to seek information from all agencies of the government, private sector and NGOs. Such free flow of information is a vital safeguard against officials hiding behind a cloak of secrecy invoking the official secrets act of the British colonial era. It's a shame that successive governments have allowed such a retrograde law to continue to this day.

Now the historic opportunity has arrived for the government to remove the fetters on access to information thereby helping press freedom to bloom as a reliable leverage against mis-governance.

Speaking of the spade work done, Law Commission had originally prepared a draft which was to be subsequently embellished through inputs from legal experts and civil society leaders. As a result, a much improved draft is available with the government. The law adviser could now make it public opening the avenue for a wider discourse on the subject.

Mere enactment of the law would not be enough by itself, because the challenges of implementing such an act could be quite complicated and daunting. The experience in India is worth studying. Perhaps we would need an information commission to implement the law.