JS standing committee meetings should be open to public
Inu tells seminar on RTI act, in-depth reporting
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu yesterday said the meetings and proceedings of the parliamentary standing committees should be open to public and the wealth accounts of the public representatives should be published to make the right to information (RTI) more effective.
“Not only that; the Election Commission should print the wealth accounts of the public representatives and distribute those among the people,” he told a seminar on RTI act and in-depth reporting at Dhaka University's Social Sciences Faculty auditorium. DU Mass Communication and Journalism Alumni Association organised the event with DU Vice-Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique in the chair.
Lauding the use of RTI, Inu requested the Information Commission to bring amendments to the law to expand its scope and jurisdiction. He said militants, fundamentalists, bureaucrats and autocrats do not want free flow of information and the RTI is a tool against them.
Chief Information Commissioner Prof Golam Rahman said private hospitals, universities and organisations should be brought under the purview of the RTI act as what he said internal corruption and non- transparency are high in these organisations. He also said the use of the law has not increased as people are not aware of it seven years after its enactment.
Prof Arefin Siddique said RTI is people's fundamental right. If information is hided, the existence of a human is threatened, he said. Mir Shahidul Alam, a member of the alumni association, presented a keynote paper on RTI. Prof Abdus Salam, Prof Mofizur Rahman, Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul, Syed Ishtiaque Reza, Shamim Reza, Hasibur Rahman Mukur, Reaz Ahmed, Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan and Mobinul Islam Mobin, among others, spoke.