Daily Excelsior: New Delhi: Sunday, July 22, 2018.
Union
Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North
Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions,
Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today made it clear that the Central
Government had no intention to dilute Right to Information.
He gave this
assurance while interacting with a group
of RTI activists, representing “Right to Information Activists Social
Welfare Society”, who called on him here
today for discussing issues regarding
citizens’ right to information and related concerns.
Pertinent to
mention that the Information Commission, dealing with the RTI, functions within
the purview of the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), which is
under the Ministerial charge of Dr Jitendra Singh.
During the
meeting, Dr Jitendra Singh allayed fears and apprehensions appearing in a
section of media that there was any move by the Modi Government to dilute or
curtail the Right To Information. He said, on the contrary, the Modi Government
had, in the last four years, worked on the principle of increasing citizen
participation in governance, with more accountability and transparency.
Dr Jitendra
Singh said, it was during the Modi Government that all the 11 vacancies of the
Central Information Commission were sought to be filled by the Government
while the pendency of the RTI
applications has been tremendously brought down and the time of disposal also
curtailed.
Dr Jitendra
Singh said, in the last four years, most of the public authorities numbering
around 2000 have been brought under the purview of the RTI Act, which was not
so before.
Members of
the visiting delegation suggested that there should be a proper
institutionalized mechanism to share the
crucial pieces of information, which can
be of great importance from the point of view of administration and public
service.
They also
shared Dr Jitendra Singh’s concern about frivolous RTI applications and even
suggested making it mandatory for the
RTI applicant to disclose his Aadhaar number in order to check the possibility
of a fake RTI.
The RTI
activists were in favour of having a continuous and aggressive awareness campaign
to educate the general masses about the utility of RTI for ensuring
transparency and at the same time, also cautioning them against the misuse of
RTI for mala-fide motives. The Minister appreciated the suggestion and said
this suggestion could be further worked upon more constructively.
The
delegation comprised of Dr D C Prajapati, Dr M C Sharma, Iqbal Sanjhi, Pawan Rawat, Vikush
Sharma, Anju Chowdhary, Avinash Shukla and others.
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