The State Academy of Training Manipur organised RTI week celebration at Mini Secretariat Tamenglong under the theme ‘Improving Transparency and Accountability in Government through effective implementation of Rights to Information Act’ on Tuesday. The programme was sponsored by the department of Personnel and Training, Government of India. Manipur University department of Law faculty N Brojakanta Singh spoke as a resource person at the occasion where Tamenglong additional district magistrate Ningreingam Leisan, district level officers of Tamenglong attended the programme. In his speech as a resource person, N Brojakanta Singh spoke lengthily on the Rights to Information Act. He said, “As government servants, we are bound to give information what is available in custody to the information seeker as per law.” He said a public information officer is the responsible man to give what the particular information which the seeker wants Every governmental department must have one public information officer each, and it is the responsibility of the officer to reply to the RTI application within 30 days. He said that if the public information officer does not reply within 30 days, the information seeker may go to appellate authority or inform the state information officer. He said that if the information seeker is living under Below Poverty Line (BPL), the information should be given free of cost. As per Right to Information act, a citizen has to charge Rs 10 or more for providing information as charge for taking photocopies at the rate of Rs 2 per copy. If the information is a matter of breaking liberty, integrity or sovereignty, etc. then the information may not be provided, he added.