. Finance Minister Rameshwor Khanal has said that it would be good if the property details submitted by the ministers are made public.

Speaking at an interaction on ‘Use of Right to Information in Media: Practices and Challenges’ jointly organized by the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and National Information Commission (NIC) here today, he stressed the need of making public the property details submitted by him.

“It is the practice of collecting the property details of the ministers but not making them public, but it is better to make them public,” he said, adding, “We have been making public all the decisions of the Council of Ministers.” ”

Stating that all should get equal opportunity and be transparent, he made it clear that right information was necessary to move ahead the country’s economy in the right way. Stating that the right to information was not only for journalists but for all, Minister Khanal said, “It has been found that non-journalists have misused information by exercising their right to information. ”

On the occasion, Finance Minister Khanal said that the right information was necessary for the operation of the country’s economy in the right way and that the information public was mandatory to give equal rights while carrying out business and economic works.

Chief Information Commissioner Dr Suresh Acharya said that only the topics that were not received while seeking information have been approaching the Commission for review and the Commission has been working to amend the laws related to Right to Information that are in contravention with the constitution. He said that there is a trend of seeking information by exercising the right to information and misusing it.

Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) chairperson Nirmala Sharma said the programme was organized with the objective of getting information about the use of the right to information, whether it is being used properly or not and to minimize wrong and false information.

On the occasion, senior journalist Yekraj Pathak presented a working paper on ‘Right to Information, Media and Practice’ and said that the practice of seeking information is on the rise despite the culture of keeping information confidential. The presentation presented the suggestions that the practice of seeking information was less, the public was not made aware, the irregularities were not unraveled, it could not become a tool against corruption, there was no provision to keep such data and fact-based investigative journalism was also inadequate.

Looking at the status of the use of the Right to Information (RTI) in the fiscal year 2081/82, the number of appeals in the fiscal year 2081/82 was 42.21 percent in the local level, 21.10 percent in education, health and sports, 15.20 percent in administration and 7.73 percent in the banks and financial institutions.