Economic
Times: New Delhi: Sunday, October 28, 2012.
To make the
RTI Act more accessible for the people, the government has sought views from
states and Union Territories on various matters related to implementation of
the transparency law.
Officials in
the Department of Personnel and Training, which acts as a nodal ministry for
the implementation of the RTI Act, said the states and UT administrations have
been asked to furnish details on the basis of applications received and
bottlenecks observed by them.
"It is
not to amend the Act. We are seeking views of states in terms of assessing
accessibility to people and how to make its usage more useful. How we reach to
large number of people living in remote or tribal areas," DoPT Secretary P
K Misra told PTI.
When asked
the time-frame within which the states are expected to reply, he said,
"They have been asked to reply. No time limit has been given. We will try
to take their views into consideration".
Earlier this
month Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that citizens' right to know
should be circumscribed if it encroaches on an individual's privacy.
"There
is a fine balance required to be maintained between the right to information
and the right to privacy, which stems out of the fundamental right to life and
liberty.
"The
citizens' right to know should definitely be circumscribed if disclosure of
information encroaches upon someone's personal privacy. But where to draw the
line is a complicated question," the Prime Minister had said.
The DoPT had
recently notified new RTI rules in which it had put a limit of 500 words for
filing an application under the Act.
Besides, a
new format has been devised for filing an appeal to the Central Information
Commission under the transparency law.
The
government has also made it mandatory for an appellant or his authorised
representative to appear before the CIC either in person or through
video-conference, according to the rules notified on July 31.
The RTI Act,
which was enacted in 2005, covers disclosure of information on almost all
matters of governance.
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