Organizer: Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
Event: News articles among the Commonwealth countries
Date: September 26-28, 2005

Description: Articles on the Right to Know Day 2005 were published across the
Commonwealth countries, like Bangladesh, Fiji, Guyana, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, and Sierra Leone

India: Interview with the Punjab Governor S F Rodrigues

Right to Information is crucial initiative: Rodrigues
Chandigarh | September 29, 2005 5:54:13 PM IST

Describing the right to information as a crucial initiative in the context of a commoner, Punjab Governor S F Rodrigues has said it would definitely bring forth positive results.

''Answerability, transparency and responsibility are imperative in our administrative machinery. Inclusion of these three will lead to our steadily advancing towards our objective,'' the retired general said yesterday in a chat with visiting members of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Press Gallery Committee.

Maintaining that self-confidence was the key whereby India may emerge as a principal global power, he added that such a process was already underway.

''All of us must keep in mind the 'Put India First' mantra,'' the Governor said.

The former officer pointed out that good governance happens when the government acts as a facilator and not as a controller -- an agency for smoothly providing the public with different basic and other facilities.

''However, the government's role often tends to become that of a controller,'' he regretted.

Pointing out that the nation's children were carriers of change, Gen (retd) Rodrigues added that no effort should be spared for making them self-confident and capable.

Underlining the cardinal role of the Fourth Estate in a democracy, the Governor said, ''the chief responsibility of democracy's fourth pillar is to report the facts while remaining unaffected by prevailing situations. Several times, excitement and other reasons affect impartial reporting.''

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