RTI affecting govt functioning, ministers concerned

Last Updated: Thursday, December 08, 2011, 18:29

Tags: Right to Information, Rajya Sabha, union ministers

New Delhi: Some union ministers have expressed concern that the Right to Information (RTI) Act is affecting government's functioning; Rajya Sabha was told on Thursday.

Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V Narayanasamy replied in affirmative on the question regarding concerns raised by ministers on the RTI Act affecting the government's functioning.

To a question about bureaucrats expressing apprehension about putting their views on controversial issues because of the RTI Act, he said "some concerns have been expressed that the improper use of Right to Information Act and indiscriminate and impracticable demands for disclosure of sundry information unrelated to transparency and accountability in the functioning of public authorities may adversly affect the efficiency of administration."

"The honourable Supreme Court also expressed similar views in Civil Appeal No 6454 of 2011 (Central Board of Secondary Education Vs Aditya Bandopadhyay and others," he said.

Narayanasamy said while the central government agrees that "indiscriminate and impracticable" demands for disclosure of "sundry" information under the RTI Act unrelated to transparency and accountability in the functioning of public authorities may adversly affect the efficiency of the administration, it is of the view that officers need not have fear while giving their free and frank advise on government matters.

On a separate question, he said Central Information Commission has a pendency of 20,232 cases as on September 1, 2011.

PTI

First Published: Thursday, December 08, 2011, 18:29

Comments

Maja Daruwala - Delhi
I agree with Mr Tirdiya and add: it is dangerous when throw away remarks by important people such as parliamentarians go unchallenged. It is increasingly the practice of parliamentarians and elected reps to make statements which have no evidentiary proof. Saying that RTI impedes government functioning without saying how it does or what instances have been known and whether there is underlying evidence is useless. The govenment must study and put out what how RTI has improved functioning, what infrastructure and practices are needed to make it give information better, what has been done to ensure compliance with sec 4 and only then begin to speak about RTI and government functioning.

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Sanjay Tirdiya - Bhavnagar
It is not RTI Act that is so much affecting the functioning of the Government, as the pervasive maladministration, malfeasance, blatant wrong doing and insidious corruption, which the functionaries of the Government want so much to hide. They then suppress information, mislead and destroy information, which results in multitude of first and second appeals, which accumulate upon an ill-equipped Information Commissionerate. The RTI Act is a panacea for a disturbed and struggling nation. The RTI Act should be made more effective and it`s prompt compliance should be made a more stringent law.