Concerned over the intense lobbying for the post of Chief Information Officer (CIC), Right to Information (RTI) activists have sought the intervention of the Prime Minister in making the appoinment process a transparent exercise that is also inclusive and participatory.
In this regard, RTI activists from across the country, including convenors of State RTI fora, on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani, and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi seeking their intervention.
Make reasons public
Referring to the arbitrary manner in which Information Commissioners have been appointed and the lobbying going on for the CIC post, the signatories to the letter said: “RTI would have no meaning when its own commissioners are appointed through such processes” that are secret, unholy and unhealthy. “These processes weaken democracy and promote godfather culture.”
The least that the Government ought to do, according to the letter, is fulfil its obligations under Section 4 of the RTI Act, which requires every public authority to make public the reasons for all its administrative and quasi-judicial decisions.
Stating that the RTI is being slowly killed, the letter draws data from a recent survey conducted by the National RTI Awards Secretariat, which revealed that only 27 per cent of those who approached Information Commissions across the country were able to get the information they sought.
Attributing the failure in the implementation of the legislation to the appointment process, the RTI activists stressed the need to prescribe the process for appointments in the Act. At the same time, conscious that this demand would give the government a pretext to push in other proposed amendments, the letter states that no amendment was needed for this as a mere inclusion in the rules was adequate.
They said the Prime Minister and Ms. Gandhi had an added responsibility in this regard, as it was they who had given “this wonderful legislation.”