The
Hindu: Vishakhapatnam: Tuesday, 22 December 2015.
Right to
Information (RTI) Act is a tool that empowers the common man and gives the
right to people to question the government, former Chief Information
Commissioner Om Prakash Kejariwal has said.
Interacting
with The Hindu here on Monday, he said people should utilise the RTI Act to
make the government accountable and reduce corruption by questioning the
authorities.
According to
him, RTI has three basic functions transparency, accountability, and
reduction of corruption.
“Ever since
the Act was passed in 2005, the level of corruption has decreased to a certain
extent. But the Act needs to be used more often by the citizens,” he pointed
out.
Even over 10
years after the Act was passed, it was being used by a small segment of people,
he said.
“The more we
use it the more accountable the government will become, and corruption too will
decrease,” he said.
Mr.
Kejariwal, who also served as CEO of Prasar Bharathi, said the killing of RTI
activist Shehla Masood in Bhopal and frequent attacks on the activists suggest
that the Act was a powerful one and had the capacity to root out corruption.
On safety and
protection of the RTI activists, he said that they can be brought under the
Whistle Blowers Protection Act.
The former
CIC, however, was not happy the way some of the departments were handling the
RTI queries.
“The Act is a
comprehensive one and addresses a range of issues, but it is not being
implemented in its true spirit by many of the departments.”
He pointed
out that many departments abstain from declaring the file notings.
But as per
the Act, a complainant is eligible to get a photocopy of the notings. Many
departments try to skirt queries by citing Section 8 or the Official Secrets
Act, but it can be overruled by the Information Commissioners.
“It is up to
the discretion of the Information Commissioner. But it has been seen in many
cases that the department heads do not respond to the Commissioner’s orders,”
said Mr. Kejariwal.
On whether a
person can make a query on black money to the Enforcement Directorate or some
sensitive issue like details on Subhas Chandra Bose or Rajiv Gandhi
assassination case, Mr. Kejariwal said, “Queries can be filed on these issues
and we have received many such in the past. But each time we passed it on to
the concerned departments, it was said that information cannot be given as it
might attract the nation’s foreign policy or some clause under Section 8 of the
Act,” he said. According to him, information can be held back under Section 8
and copyright section of the Act.
Mr. Kejariwal
also delivered a special lecture on RTI at the Department of Mass Communication
and Journalism, Andhra University, on Monday.
Head of
Department Bobby Vardhan and Prof. D.V.R. Murthy spoke.
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