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Today marks the 14th anniversary of the formation of the National Information Commission. Article 27 of the Constitution of Nepal recognizes the right to information as an important fundamental right. For the institutional development of democracy, citizens should have easy access to state functions and public information. The development of a citizen-controlled government can take place only if the citizens are informed. The right to information promotes good governance and strengthens democracy by empowering citizens while maintaining transparency and accountability in governance.
The importance of accurate, factual, and official information naturally increases during elections. The Commission urges not to disseminate misleading and misleading information, news, and rumors as it may have a negative impact on free, fair, and clean elections.
The Commission is working to extend the right to information from the federal to the local level to public bodies, citizens, and the right to information engineers and to enforce the legal provisions related to the right to information. Awareness about the legal provisions and use of the right to information through interaction and other programs is being carried out regularly on behalf of the Commission. The Commission calls upon the general public to make the best use of their civil rights to seek and receive information guaranteed by the Constitution and the law.
The primary responsibility for the implementation of the right to information as a fundamental right lies with the public bodies. Naturally, the officials of public bodies are in a more convenient position than the citizens seeking information - in terms of resources, means and access. Therefore, the Commission expects the initiative and efforts of the public bodies to make the information public and to make the requested information easily available.
The number of people seeking information is gradually increasing every year. The number of appeals received by the commission has exceeded 8,000 after the information was not received. Action has been taken against the heads of 31 public bodies for not respecting and abiding by the constitutional and legal rights of citizens seeking and receiving information. The Commission is confident that this will make the responsible officials of the public bodies more aware of the need to implement the right to information.
Further efforts are needed to make the implementation of the right to information effective and to reach the citizen level. In this regard, the efforts made by RTI activists, media persons, and civil society are commendable. The Commission is always grateful to the media persons, civil society, right to information activists, information officers, and others who have made significant contributions to the exercise of the right to information.
As implementation of the right to information is possible only with the cooperation, coordination, and understanding of the stakeholders, the Commission is always ready to cooperate with all. Expressing gratitude to all the civil servants working in the Secretariat of the Commission for encouraging the Commission to move forward through various means and for supporting the work done by the Commission and for making the work of the Commission fruitful.
