Times of India: Thiruvananthapuram: Sunday, August 14, 2016.
"I don't
understand why any officer should be reluctant in providing information as per
the Right to Information (RTI) Act to applicants. If they have nothing to hide,
there will be no problem in letting others know about the actions," said
chief information commissioner Vinson M Paul here on Saturday.
Speaking at
the inauguration of a seminar titled 'Right to Information: Challenges', Paul
said the Act has been facing a lot of challenges in its implementation stage.
He, however,
expressed hope that the impediments would wither away in near future.
"Problems begin when information officers consider applicants as their
arch rivals. They tend to see information seekers inferior to them, he said.
"My
experience in the police department was that many of those who appear like
champions of transparency show scant disregard to the whole concept when they
are at the centre of RTI queries or human rights violations," the former
ADGP said.
Ayush
secretary B Asok said the tendency to keep cabinet discussions as top secret
stemmed out of colonial hang over. During the war days, it was important for
governments to ensure that their strategies were not leaked to enemies. "I
am not authorised to speak on behalf of the government. I only intend to share
the history of cabinet secrecies," he said.
The event was
jointly organized by human rights justice vigilance forum and Kerala RTI
federation.
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