Modi PMO stonewalling RTI queries: Activists

Times of India: New Delhi: Sunday, 03 August 2014.

Activists have begun questioning the Modi PMO's promise of transparency. A RTI application seeking details, including file notings, of the Union Cabinet's decision to scrap GoMs and EGoMs was returned merely stating the decision in a cryptic eight-line response. Activists say this is in violation of multiple orders given by the Central Information Commission (CIC) and provisions of the Right to Information Act.

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)'s Venkatesh Nayak had sought details of the decision to abolish Empowered Group of Ministers and Group of Ministers as published on the PMO website on May 31. Nayak also sought a copy of presentations given by various departments to the PM on the issue.

The first query was answered by the mere statement that the PM had decided to abolish the GoMs and EGoMs. The second query was transferred by the PMO to the Cabinet Secretariat who sent it back saying that the information must be sought from respective departments.

Neither the Cabinet Secretariat nor the PMO confirmed that they have a copy of the presentations in violation of an order by a full bench of the Delhi HC that says public authority has a duty to confirm or deny the existence of a record in its custody when sought for under the RTI Act.

Earlier faced with a similar problem activist Subhash Agrawal had filed an appeal with the CIC complaining that applications sent to the PMO were not being transferred to the respective departments in violation of section 6(3) of the RTI act that directs the public authority to transfer the query to the concerned department. "Earlier the PMO always transferred the query to the concerned public authority but in recent months it has changed its attitude and returns the queries wasting precious time," Agrawal said.

Nayak said that in fact the PMO was also violating a June 2012 CIC order which says that papers, documents and file notings related to all cabinet decisions must be made public once the process is completed. "The promise of transparency under the NDA Government is increasingly becoming a social media exercise with little substantive information and hardly any official record being placed in the public domain on even the most basic of matters. And one is not even seeking information that has a bearing on national security". Nayak said.