Times
of India: New Delhi: Friday, 27 February 2015.
In a blow to
transparency, the PMO has decided to block public access to the wealth
declarations made by ministers. The details of assets and liabilities of the
union council of ministers has been available online since 2010. However, the
details are now password protected and can only be accessed by the authorized
personnel.
In fact
information on assets and liabilities of the present council of ministers was
available till recently. According to the website pmindia.gov.in, the
information was last updated on February 11, 2015 when the user name and
password protection might have been introduced.
National
Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) member Anjali Bhardwaj said,
"We are convinced that the PM does not want to be transparent and give
people information.'' She said a bigger concern was that there would be no one
to complain to. "The chief information commissioner happens to be the
adjudicator for the PMO. In the absence of a CIC (the post has remained vacant
since August 2014) we cannot even file a complaint against the government,''
she added.
RTI activist
S C Agrawal on whose RTI query the information was made public described it as
a "blow to transparency'' adding that a series of missteps was working
towards halting the progress made under the RTI Act. There are at present over
37,000 cases pending before the Commission. The huge backlog compounded by the
lack of staff has crippled the Commission's work.
The
disclosures of union ministers' assets and liabilities had marked a landmark
step towards accountability and transparency in the government and came after a
year of sarkari stonewalling on an RTI application filed by Agrawal with the
CIC citing public interest. The chief information commissioner had ordered that
the detailed list of assets and liabilities, their business interests and that
of their family must be made public if the leaders of both houses give
permission. Parliament was of the opinion that no permission was required for
disclosure forcing the Union Cabinet this week to adopt a resolution that the
assets would be made public.
Members of the
House have to declare their assets and liabilities within 90 days of taking
oath as MPs under Rule 3 of the Members of the Lok Sabha (Declaration of Assets
and Liabilities Rules, 2004).
The PMO
dropped its stand against making public ministers' assets and liabilities after
the making of complete details filed by the elected representatives in 2010.
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