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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | RTI changes may make it toothless by Viju B

RTI changes may make it toothless by Viju B

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published Published on Jan 12, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 12, 2011

Proposed changes to the Right to Information (RTI) Act threaten to render it ineffective to a large extent. The amendments include restricting questions per RTI query to one and word count to 250 per query, and levying a higher charge.

If the Department of Personnel and Training proposed draft comes into effect it would be applicable to all Central government agencies and respective state commissions can follow suit. RTI activists said the draft rules would kill the Act and citizens will not get adequate responses.

The manner in which the DoPT is pushing the draft rules without asking for suggestions shows they want to dilute the Act and make it ineffective. The DoPT just gave 17 days, from December 10 to December 27 to invite suggestions and comments. "The draft rules suggest major changes that need to be debated. The Centre should have given more time for the people to respond and given far more coverage to the rules in public forums, informing everyone of these changes.

After all this is a people's Act," Bhaskar Prabhu, convener of the Mahiti Adhikar Manch said. Kurla-based activist Anil Galgali agreed: "The one-query rule is really absurd. How can one just ask one query when there are so many angles to an issue?"

He cited an example wherein he had to ask 10 questions on an issue where politicians had usurped apartments reserved for the common man under the chief minister's discretionary quota. A senior CIC official said though the one-query rule should not come into effect there should be some limitations on word count. "Some applicants send queries which are 20-25 pages long. This is plainly to harass the public information officers and waste their time. Ideally all the queries can fit in one or two pages if drafted succinctly," the CIC official said.


The Times of India, 13 January, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/RTI-changes-may-make-it-toothless-/articleshow/7272930.cms


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