DRAFT amendments may sound RTI death knell……Viju B
Changes Include Permitting Only One Question In An RTI Query,Levy Extra Charges
Changes Include Permitting Only One Question In An RTI Query,Levy Extra Charges
Mumbai : 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 hire charge.
If the Department of Personal and Trainings 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 peoples 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 at 10 questions on an issue where politicians had usurped apartments reserved for the common man under the chief ministers 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 2025 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.
RTI activist Krishnaraj Rao said the draft rule is silent on complainants.There is no mention of this important tool wherein an applicant can directly file a complaint with the information commission in case he does not get the correct information.If the department does away with this then we will be at the mercy of the PIOs and appellate authorities, Rao said.
The rules,Prabhu said,should in fact look at problems and limitations of the Act and amend them for the benefit of the citizens.There is still no way we can challenge an order of the information commission and there is no prescribed time limit to comply with its order.These limitations should be looked into and amended accordingly, Prabhu said.
Proposed Amendments & Perceived Dangers
* The applicant can ask only one question per RTI query
The PIOs will use this as a pretext to provide incomplete information
* The PIOs can levy hire charges
This rule has not been explained properly.There are fears the state will levy exorbitant labour charges and even come up with excuses that there are no photocopy machines in office
* The number of words in each query should not exceed 250
This will severely restrict giving the background of an issue and an RTI query can be rejected for incomplete or incoherent information
– The draft rules will kill the RTI act as it would be impossible for any applicant to ask just one question on an issue which has several angles
Milind Mulay | RTI ACTIVIST
– The quick manner in which the DoPT is pushing this draft rules without allotting at least one month to take suggestions and comments show that they want to dilute the act and make it ineffective
Bhaskar Prabhu | CONVENER,MAHITI ADHIKAR MANCH
– Many aspects in the draft rules need to be discussed in an open forum and the government has recently put the rules on the web site.How many RTI applicants in the country have access to the internet This is the poor mans only tool to fight against the corrupt establishment.It should be left untouched
Rajan Alimchandani | CIVIC ACITIVIST
– There is the Karnataka example where some of these rules were implemented and today the RTI movement there has almost died as people do not get any relevant information
Chetan Kothari | RTI ACTIVIST