Arun Jaitley: Bureaucrats free to air opinion during decision making, but RTI can be a problem

Financial Express: New Delhi: Saturday, July 29, 2017.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said bureaucrats are free to render their opinion during the process of decision making. Jaitley, however, said the Right to Information (RTI) Act can create hindrance to some extent in this regard and the civil servants may not feel free to air their opinion apprehending that the same may become public later, according to a Finance Ministry statement.

“That’s why, the Finance Minister said that even B G Verghese (senior journalist) had stated that the opinion/advice given by public servants in the course of decision making should not be made public,” the statement added.

The Finance Minister was speaking after releasing a book entitled “I@S – TALE TOLD BY AN IASs” written by Omesh Saigal, a retired Officer of the Indian Administrative Service (1964 Batch) at a function in North Block here. Speaking at the same occasion, former civil servant and Lt Governor of Delhi Tejinder Khanna said that the bureaucrats should be allowed to air their opinion in a free and fair manner so that the good suggestions are not left out in the process of decision making.