New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS) Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari Tuesday inaugurated the first national Right to Information (RTI) awards here and said that he was pleasantly surprised at the manner in which citizens across the country have taken the RTI route to secure justice.
“I confess, I am pleasantly surprised at the manner in which common citizens across the country have taken recourse to the RTI Act to address their unending efforts to secure justice. It is no secret that the legal process of securing justice in our country is time consuming; there is also an acquittal rate of around 90 percent,” said Ansari in his inaugural speech at the awards.

The first national RTI awards were constituted by the Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF).

The inaugural year’s awards were given to Akhil Gogoi (Best RTI User category), Lalit Narayan Mishra (Best Public Information Officer category) and Arunachal Pradesh Information Commission (Best Information Commission category).

They were given Rs.200,000, a citation and a certificate each. The other 18 citizens in the Best RTI User category and two other government officials in the Best PIO category were given Rs.100,000, a citation and a certificate each.

The awards were given by the jury which consisted of Fali S. Nariman, Justice J.S. Verma, Pullela Gopichand, Mallika Sarabhai, J.M. Lyngdoh and Prannoy Roy. Several RTI activists and information commissioners were present at the function.