Business
Standard: New Delhi: Sunday, 16 November 2014.
The Narendra
Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, like its United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) predecessor, seems to be failing on suo motu
disclosures under the Right to Information Act (RTI).
The
department of personnel & training (DoPT) had last month issued an official
memorandum directing all central ministries and departments to upload replies
to RTI applications and first appeals on their respective websites from October
31. This had drawn a good amount of attention as a move towards transparency,
especially because a deadline added an air of immediacy to the efforts.
However, more
than a fortnight past deadline, we have few ministries that have complied. And,
among those that have, the level of transparency in the replies posted on
websites varies from one ministry to another.
A quick
review of government websites reveals that the ministries for home and external
affairs are the only key offices that have posted replies so far. On the home
ministry website, you need to know the RTI applicant's name to locate the
reply. By comparison, the external affairs ministry is more open; it has listed
out subject-wise replies, eliminating the need for an applicants' name. Most
other ministries have only made the most basic proactive disclosures mandated
by the RTI Act, 2005. Among government departments, DoPT, the nodal agency for
RTI, lists out replies.
Besides,
DoPT's latest directive to ministries on RTI disclosures is not a completely
new one. On April 15 last year, a similar office memorandum had been issued to
ministries and departments under the UPA regime, saying all public authorities
shall "proactively disclose" RTI applications and appeals received
and maintain their responses on websites.
While the
scope of suo motu disclosures was extended, the authorities were exempted from
posting personal information. Also, that memo had not set any deadline, and
most public authorities did not implement it.
More than 18
months and a change of government later, DoPT's October 21 memo on the same
subject sought "immediate action" in uploading replies to RTI
applications and first appeals on websites from October 31.
The NDA
government's experiment with making RTI replies public has come at a time when
the mechanism for appointment of the chief information commissioner (CIC) has
been tweaked. For the first time, applications for the post have been sought
through and advertisement. That November 24 is the last date for receiving
applications implies the organisation stays headless for months.
Continuing on
the transparency theme, DoPT in November 10 came out with a circular on
offering short-term internships to law students for conducting an analysis of
RTI applications received by select public authorities. The one-month
internship plan, starting December 1, was for "improving transparency and
accountability in the government through effective implementation of RTI",
a DoPT note said.
When the NDA
government had taken charge at the Centre in May this year, the pendency of
appeals before the CIC stood at 3,662. With no CIC in office, the number of
pending petitions has now reached 9,956. The total number of pending queries
before the information commissioner - some of those for more than two years -
stands at 34,261.
Shailesh
Gandhi, former CIC and an RTI activist, says the move to put up replies on
ministry websites "will lead to better transparency". It might also deter
public information officers from giving "frivolous replies".
Satyananda
Mishra, a former CIC who earlier was secretary in DoPT, told Business Standard
that the NDA government's move could be interpreted in two ways - one, it is a
step to make things open and transparent; and two, the fear of being identified
might prevent many from filing RTI applications.
"Knowledge
of one seeking information on a particular issue or organisation could hit his
privacy," according to Mishra. And that might discourage people from
seeking information. "So, the move could be interpreted as both good and
not entirely good," he pointed out.
The attitude
within the ministries is yet to change. Senior officials of two infrastructure
ministries that Business Standard spoke to spoke about paucity of resources to
deal with RTI-related work. "Officials handling RTI have other
responsibilities as well, but the deluge takes other official duties away from
them," said one.
Another
official narrated a recent meeting of a minister with the officials in charge
of RTI in his ministry. "The tone suggested keenness to get away with
doing the least," he said. There are other issues, too.
A source
complained how activists would take information under RTI and immediately run
to court to challenge the decisions. He pointed to a case where even the PMO
had filed a revision petition before the CIC to deny information. In any case,
the trick to go slow on "difficult" replies was a norm in many
ministries, he admitted. Subhash Chandra Agarwal, known in the RTI circle for
his regular queries on numerous subjects, said it might not be practical for
members of the public to look at websites of so many ministries to check RTI
responses, and that without the option of subject-wise selection.
According to
experts in the area, to make searches really transparent, the engine should be
uniform across ministries and departments, so that citizens know how and where
to seek information. At present, it is ad hoc. "DoPT must give a uniform
model to all ministries to follow for putting up RTI replies on sites,"
Mishra said. Ministries had taken several years to comply with the
proactive-disclosure clause under Section 4 (i)(b) of the RTI Act.
RTI, which
came during the UPA rule and was a dominant theme in the country until
recently, might be losing some of its aggression with the emergence of some
other issues coming to forefront, said Mishra. However, Gandhi said his
perception was that "RTI is continuing to grow, albeit at a slightly
slower pace than earlier. It has reached most citizens who are active in
governance matters." The slow rate of disposals at information commissions
is responsible for a "slight dampening in growth", Gandhi added.
RTI
DISCLOSURES IN PUBLIC DOMAIN: THEN & NOW
•
On
April 15, 2013, DoPT said in a memo that all public authorities shall
proactively disclose RTI queries, replies and appeals on their websites
•
The
April 2013 circular had extended the scope of suo motu disclosures under the
RTI Act, 2005, but no deadline was set
•
Very
few public authorities implemented the directive issued by DoPT last year
•
In
another memo, issued on October 21, 2014, DoPT directed all central ministries
to upload RTI queries, their replies and first appeals on their websites from
October 31
•
So
far, only a couple of ministries have started posting RTI queries and replies
on their websites
Source: DoPT, ministry websites
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