Hindu Business Line: Mumbai: Friday,
January 20, 2017.
Government
agencies and institutions are increasingly finding ways to decline information
sought through the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Over the last six months,
RTI queries filed by BusinessLine seeking information from agencies ranging
from the Railways to the RBI have been stonewalled.
For example,
on a query on newly-printed ₹500 and ₹2,000 notes, the Currency Press in Nashik
declined disclosure saying the information about production numbers could
“prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security,
strategic and economic interest of the State or lead to incitement of an
offence and would disproportionately divert the resources of the public
authority”.
Hitting a
stone wall
Even on the
crucial Income Declaration Scheme, the amnesty scheme for tax evaders, the I-T
Department is not willing to share details such as the number of taxpayers and
the amount of income declared.
Details such
as the number of companies that have declared income under the scheme are also
under wraps. The Department is taking refuge in a July 2016 order of the
Finance Ministry, which has effectively sealed off all information about the
scheme.
Upon
conclusion of the ‘Make in India Week’ last February, the Department of
Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) announced that different State
governments had received investment commitments of ₹15.20 lakh crore. When an
RTI query was filed seeking names and investment commitments, the DIPP
responded saying that it did not possess the information as it pertains to
various State governments.
Aquery filed
with the Railway Ministry seeking a detailed project report on the ₹77,000
crore Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train elicited the response that the information
could not be shared as it could affect the competition position of agencies
working on the project.
Former Central
Information Commissioner, Shailesh Gandhi told BusinessLine that after
litigation in the Supreme Court, the RBI had come up with a disclosure policy
last year, which actually works as a non-disclosure policy. It had listed a
number of items on which information cannot be shared with an RTI applicant.
Till about
2011, Public Information Officers were sharing information and were worried
about repercussions and penalties. But thereafter, Information Commissioners
started delaying and denying the RTI applications and were reluctant to levy
penalties on an errant officer.
“In recent
times there is a hardening of attitudes from people in power towards sharing of
information and the Information Commissioners are also responsible for this
situation,” Gandhi said.
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