Wednesday’s sitting of the Interim Legislature Parliament endorsed the much awaited Right to Information Bill that would make it easy for the general public to receive information from the government offices.

Taking part in the debate over the bill, lawmakers expressed hope that the bill would also help make the government bodies more accountable. They described this as an important step in protecting the right of the citizens to information.

Minister for Information and Communication Krishna Bahadur Mahara said the new bill could prove a cornerstone towards democratising the state authorities as well as building proper mechanism for free flow of information.

He said the bill was based on the norm that the state bodies should not operate in non-transparent situations.

The parliamentary Committee on Environment, Media and Technology had finalised the draft of the bill following discussions held at the parliamentary secretariat on Friday.

The bill proposes a three-member high-level commission on media and has made it mandatory to the public authorities to furnish any information demanded by agencies or individual citizens within 15 days. Refusal or denial to this mandatory responsibility would invite Rs 1,000-25,000 fine on the responsible official. This provision is mandatory to NGOs as well.

Similarly, every government office should appoint a spokesperson to coordinate with yjr media and provide information to the seekers.