Manorama: Thiruvananthapuram: Friday, July 15, 2016.
Refusing to
make the cabinet decisions public, the LDF government in Kerala on Thursday
said that the decisions made in cabinet meetings do not fall under the ambit of
Right to Information (RTI) Act.
In a
significant order that was expected to make government businesses more
transparent, Kerala Information Commission had ordered last month that all
decisions by the state government, once finalized in the cabinet, should come
under the RTI Act.
The
government has now decided to move the High Court against the Information
Commission's order.
The
government's stance is that the decisions taken in the cabinet are merely steps
proposed which will be finalized only when they get implemented.
The
government has informed state chief information commissioner Vinson M. Paul
that the cabinet will not make its decisions public.
The LDF
government's decision is also against the Central Information Commission (CIC)
rule which stated in March this year that the union and state cabinets are
'public authorities' liable to answer public questions addressed to them under
the RTI Act.
Unfortunate:
RTI activist
Terming the
government's move as unfortunate, RTI activist D. B. Binu said, “It was the LDF
that demanded transparency in governance when the previous UDF government was
in power. Now, they are denying information to the public. The public owes an
explanation from the government on this issue.”
Vinson M.
Paul had issued the order last month while disposing of a complaint by Binu
against the decision of the state government, which denied him copies of the
previous Oommen Chandy cabinet decisions taken from January 1 to March 12 under
the RTI Act.
The
commission had also suggested that the government publish the cabinet decisions
on its official website.
The order by
the state information commission in June grabbed headlines as the Pinarayi
Vijayan-led LDF government had done away with the practice of convening press
conference after cabinet meeting.
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