CIC wants BJP considered ‘public authority’, brought under RTI

Times of India: New Delhi: Saturday, August 19, 2017.

An RTI query about how projects are chosen and their progress under the MPLADS has prompted the CIC to ask BJP why the party should not be considered a "public authority" and brought under the ambit of the RTI Act.

In an order that is scathing about the lack of transparency in the government as well as political parties, information commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu has asked the chief whip of the BJP party, leader, deputy leader in the Lok Sabha "or any other authorised representative" as to why the BJP Parliamentary party should not be declared as a public authority under section 2(h) of the RTI Act by September 7. The order notes that the political party is being queried on the basis of the possibility of a policy of guidelines being issued from the party for selection of projects for MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds.

A public authority, under the RTI Act, means any body or institution established or constituted by or under the Constitution, or by any other law made by Parliament. The order came on a complaint by Vishnu Dev Bhandari who wanted to know the progress of works under the MPLADS and the basis on which they were selected in his constituency Madhubani by his local representative, BJP's Hukumdev Narayan Yadav.

Bhandari complained to the central information commission (CIC) after he received no reply to his RTI application from the public information officer of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

Acharyulu, who noted that who else but the voter has the right to question how his representative was spending funds, added that in principle, every legislative and parliamentary party should be considered a "public authority". As such, he has also asked other political parties to respond to the order, though only BJP has been asked to respond by September 7.

Besides, Hukumdev Yadav's private secretary was directed to furnish details of the work recommended by him, the criterion of selection or rejection and progress of the work before September 7. Acharyulu also directed the ministry and district collectors to answer the petition in 30 days.

Incidentally, the CIC is to examine the matter of political parties being under the ambit of RTI Act under a full bench. In Acharyulu's order, he has also asked civil society members to express their opinions and contentions and send them to the id, madabhushisridhar@gov.in before September 8.

Noting in his order that every MP gets Rs 5 crore per annum for local area development, which comes from tax payers money, the Commission recommended voluntarily disclosure of the criterion for selection of works under MPLADs, along with constituency wise work list and their progress on the party website.

The ministry of statistics had said that actual progress on the field could be ascertained only by local authorities like the district magistrate. Acharyulu however, said the information is "partly held" by the ministry, district collectors and magistrates in the constituency, the Member of Parliament and his legislature party, if they have any guidelines or policy regarding allocation of funds.