Abstract
The Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005 passed with great fanfare as a path-breaking legislation by the then government completed a journey of 19 years on 12th October, 2024. The Act empowered millions of people and kick-started their journey of an RTI application, evoking the concept of participatory citizenship. Without an iota of doubt, it can be said, ‘RTI has empowered the lay man to communicate directly with the public authority, squashing the practice of delivery of services by the authority, by challenging the practice of allotting the “middleman” the charge of disbursement of entitlements’ hence shifting from a ‘need based-approach to a rights-based approach to development. It has been observed through studies that the RTI has played an active role in checking public authority at the grassroots levels for any misappropriation of people’s money. However, the transformation in work culture, from secretive to openness, changing of minds of the public authorities as well as of the people, will definitely take a long time to bring RTI in practice to its full potential. more...