-First Post
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his address to the Annual Convention of Information Commissioners, in early October had warned against the use of the Right to Information Act — one of the most popular people-oriented steps that the UPA has taken so far — to ridicule public officials and infringe on people’s privacy.
The PM’s statement which expressed concern over frivolous and vexatious RTI applications, infringement of personal privacy and bringing public private partnerships under the RTI Act had sparked off a debate and was severely criticised by activists.
But now, when asked for documents on the basis of which these “concerns” were raised, the PMO has said that they don’t have any documents to back up these claims.
According to a Times of India report, in reply to an RTI application, the PMO has said that it had no basis for making such a remark.
Singh in his statement had that the RTI should not be only about criticising, ridiculing, and running down public authorities.
“Sometimes information covering a long time-span or a large number of cases is sought in an omnibus manner with the objective of discovering an inconsistency or mistake which can be criticized. Such queries besides serving little productive social purpose are also a drain on the resources of the public authorities, diverting precious man-hours that could be put to better use. Such requests for information have in fact come in for adverse criticism by the Supreme Court as well as the Central Information Commission,” he had said.
Social activists, led by National Advisory Council (NAC) member Aruna Roy, had slammed the Prime Minister’s observations on RTI Act alleging it signals support from the “highest quarters” to those keen on diluting the law.
In a point—by—point rebuttal of the Prime Minister’s observations, activists had said the existing Right To Information Act has adequate provisions to reject applications that are not legitimate.