Times of India: National: Monday, Tuesday, 15 August 2023.
India’s new data protection law has diluted RTI. The amendment changes a provision in RTI on not providing personal information unless it’s in public interest into one that says no personal information will be provided. This, as RTI activists have pointed out, makes it impossible for the law to address many genuine citizen concerns. Queries on pensions, rations, government scholarships often include requests for information on those who have the power to disburse these benefits. A blanket ban on releasing personal information will shut this one small window of hope for many ordinary Indians.
Worryingly, this change is part of a long series of tweaks that have robbed RTI of much of its original purpose. Information commissions (ICs), which exist at both central and state levels, govern the working of RTI. The efficacy of RTI mostly depends on how effective ICs are. Data compiled by Satark Nagrik Sangathan, a citizens group that tracks RTI, shows that ICs have a problem. At the level of states, there are often vacancies in IC posts as appointments are delayed. For example, the 2022 report of SNS showed that Manipur didn’t have a chief information commissioner for 44 months. Consequently, pendency’s risen. It rose from 2.19 lakh complaints in March 2019 to 3.14 lakh by June 2022.
The Central Information Commission has seen a significant increase in rejections of appeals since 2015. Annual rejections, on average, have been over 60% from a negligible amount in the preceding years. RTI empowered citizens. It said that information that couldn’t be denied to parliamentarians had to be made availableto citizens. Sadly, RTI’s operation has deteriorated across ICs. That Parliament didn’t debate this clause is another proof of how little the political class thinks of RTI.
India’s new data protection law has diluted RTI. The amendment changes a provision in RTI on not providing personal information unless it’s in public interest into one that says no personal information will be provided. This, as RTI activists have pointed out, makes it impossible for the law to address many genuine citizen concerns. Queries on pensions, rations, government scholarships often include requests for information on those who have the power to disburse these benefits. A blanket ban on releasing personal information will shut this one small window of hope for many ordinary Indians.
Worryingly, this change is part of a long series of tweaks that have robbed RTI of much of its original purpose. Information commissions (ICs), which exist at both central and state levels, govern the working of RTI. The efficacy of RTI mostly depends on how effective ICs are. Data compiled by Satark Nagrik Sangathan, a citizens group that tracks RTI, shows that ICs have a problem. At the level of states, there are often vacancies in IC posts as appointments are delayed. For example, the 2022 report of SNS showed that Manipur didn’t have a chief information commissioner for 44 months. Consequently, pendency’s risen. It rose from 2.19 lakh complaints in March 2019 to 3.14 lakh by June 2022.
The Central Information Commission has seen a significant increase in rejections of appeals since 2015. Annual rejections, on average, have been over 60% from a negligible amount in the preceding years. RTI empowered citizens. It said that information that couldn’t be denied to parliamentarians had to be made availableto citizens. Sadly, RTI’s operation has deteriorated across ICs. That Parliament didn’t debate this clause is another proof of how little the political class thinks of RTI.
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