Newsfirst: New Delhi: Wednesday, May 31, 2017.
A request
made by News1st seeking information on the educational qualifications of MPs
under the Right To Information Act, has been rejected.
Neil
Iddawala, the Chief of Staff and Deputy Secretary General Parliament has
responded to the request made by News1st.
The reply
states that they rejected our request for information as it is exempted
information covered by Section 05(a) of the Right to Information Act Number 12
of 2016.
Section 5(a),
which deals with “DENIAL OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION” states that:
“The information
relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to
any
public
activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy
of the individual unless the larger public interest justifies, the disclosure
of such information or the person concerned has consented in writing to such
disclosure”.
He notes that
we can submit an appeal under section 31(1) or Section 25(7) of the Act, within
fourteen days.
Chameera
Perera, Joint Convenor of the Left Centre, speaking on the subject said:
“Do
these public representatives have anything to hide. We need to know the
knowledge capacity of the public representatives and MPs that we elect. As
citizens of this country we have a need to look into the education qualifications
of the MPs taking in to account the decisions they took in the past and their
conduct. Today, that request has been rejected. Why are they rejecting the
requests made for their educational qualifications. What do they have to hide?
It is clear to us that they are attempting to conceal their air-head nature.
They are air-heads. Though they stand before the people as strong persons they
are of no substance”.
Don’t we, as
citizens, have the right to know the knowledge capacity of the public
representatives and MPs we elect?
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