‘The role of media is vital for a pro active RTI movement in the state,’ said chief information commissioner, Oinam Sunil Singh during a one day media awareness programme on “RTI Act 2005” held on Sunday at Manipur Press Club, Imphal. 
Sunil said that RTI act is an important tool to prevent corruption in the country. But for its effective implementation, the first and foremost thing is to create mass awareness about it and media have a huge responsibility in it. 
He informed that Manipur stood second in RTI application in the entire North East India.  But it lags far behind when compared with the other Indian States. In a year around 300 RTI applications were filed in the state. The number of applications is very minimal despite the fact that many corruption related news are being carried in the media. The chief information commissioner therefore, advocated increasing the RTI movement in the state. While encouraging the state media to make better use of RTI, he said, media can also use RTI as one of the most reliable source of information. 

He said that the present government had expanded MIC with an objective to bring transparency in the state and to minimize corruption in the state and people should utilize such mechanism for better society. The awareness programme was jointly organised by The All Manipur Working Journalists’ Union (AMJWU) in association with Manipur Information Committee (MIC).