Rupnagar, August 17, 2017: Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration Punjab (MGSIPA), Regional Centre, Patiala organized a two-day RTI training programme for Public Information Officers (PIOs) and Assistant Public Information Officers (APIOs) under Right to Information Act, 2005 here today. Over 50 officers/officials of different ranks of different departments of District administration are taking part in this programme.
The Training Programme which has been sponsored by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Govt. of India aims to sensitise the concerned officers about the Act and also to make them aware about the latest developments based on the judgments of the Central / State Information Commission.
Gurneet Tej, Deputy Commissioner, Rupnagar while launching the programme, said that the RTI Act is an important tool to empower the people besides bringing about transparency and accountability in administration. She encouraged the officers to update their knowledge about this Act on the basis of tips given by the RTI experts in this 2-days programme. She complimented the MGSIPA Administration for organizing the event and reorient the skills of officers of District Administration about the provisions of the RTI Act.
Sh. Jarnail Singh, Course Director (RTI) MGSIPA Chandigarh while highlighting the importance of RTI Act, 2005 training programmes, said that such programmes are being organized in all the district to generate awareness about this Act. He said that the Institute organizes over 150 programmes in a year on various subject like RTI, Sevottom, Office Procedure, Civil Service Rules, Financial Management, Soft Skills & etc. besides proving consultancy, publications and dissemination of ideas/information in an integrated manner. A pool of resource persons, experts, of eminence in various disciplines are associated with training programmes.
Sh. DC Gupta, IDAS (Retd.) presented salient features and over all view of the Act. Sh. SP Singh Bhalla, General Manger (Retd.), GAIL (India) Limited another expert gave well-structured presentation on RTI Act. He also gave a background of the Act and also its implementation in different countries of world. Sh. DR Paul, Resource Person and Former Senior Faculty of MGSIPA gave detailed presentation on "Exemptions from Disclosures etc., third party information and constitution of state information commission, terms & conditions of service, removal of information commissioners.
Sh. Amarjeet Singh Sodhi, Project Coordinator, MGSIPA, Regional Centre, Patiala gave introduction of the training programme and concluded discussion among the participants in the afternoon.
As part of this programme tomorrow, Sh. Yashpaul Manvi, Assistant Director (Retd.), Punjab School Education Dept. and Dr. Puja Jaswal, Assistant Prof. of Law, Army Institute of Law, Mohali will deliver their lectures/presentations in the training programmes.
During this training programme Sh. Harbans Singh, Assistant Commissioner (General), Sh. Navdeep Kumar, Assistant Commissioner (UT), Dr. Rita, Assistant Civil Surgeon, Dr. Darshan Lal, Assistant Director, Horticulture, PIOs and APIOs of different departments were also present.