Economic Times: New Delhi: Thursday,
July 14, 2016.
Information
on the country's nuclear weapons stock-pile and any details on their testing
has now been put out of the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The
Strategic Forces Command has been added to the list of 25 organizations
excluded from the purview of the RTI Act except for information pertaining to
corruption or human right allegations.
This is the
first addition made to the list by the Narendra Modi Government after the UPA
in 2011 had last added the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), National
Investigation Agency (NIA) and National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) to the list
of the intelligence and security organisations which are exempt from RTI Act.
The Strategic
Forces Command (SFC) administers control over the tactical and strategic
nuclear stockpile of the country, which includes the land-based and sea-based
nucleararmed ballistic missiles.
SFC
operationalises the directives of the Nuclear Command Authority which works
under the command of the Prime Minister and SCF has the responsibility of the
process of delivering nuclear weapons and warheads in the event of a planned
strike.
SCF also does
testing of the nuclear missiles, like Agni-4 and Agni-5. The Union Government
on the other hand has been actively trying to broaden the access to RTI by
adding a host of public authorities to the Online RTI Portal like public sector
financial institutions and banks, all the zones under railways ministry and its
PSUs, Maharatnas and Navratnas PSUs, central universities and educational
institutions.
From a list
of about 500 public authorities to which RTI's can be filed online at present,
nearly 300 more public authorities are to be added to the portal by the end of this
year.
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