RTI: Babus pull a chameleon act

Different central government departments have different interpretations of the transparency law, Right To Information. While some government departments have proactively disclosed information, others have denied it, citing prohibitory clauses.

Updated on: Jan 3, 2012, 01:50:13 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Different central government departments have different interpretations of the transparency law, Right To Information. While some government departments have proactively disclosed information, others have denied it, citing prohibitory clauses.

HT had filed a RTI application with the Cabinet Secretariat, seeking copies of the minutes of the Group of Ministers and Empowered Group of Ministers constituted since June 2009.

The secretariat forwarded the application to all central government departments. Almost four months after the RTI application was filed, over 50 departments responded.

Some ministries such as home affairs, urban development, law, information and broadcasting and commerce provided the copies of the minutes of the ministerial groups. The urban development ministry provided minutes of the GoM constituted to decide Phase-III of the Delhi Metro.

The law ministry provided copies of the GoM to confer voting rights to non-resident Indians and Judicial Accountability Bill. The commerce ministry gave the minutes of the GoM on price stablisation fund scheme for coffee, tea, rubber and tobacco growers.

But these were the exceptions. The civil aviation ministry refused to provide minutes of the GoM that took a final view on amendments on the Anti-Hijacking Bill. Without specifying the clause under which the information was denied, the ministry’s public information officer Ashok Kumar said, “the details of the GoM meetings and actions taken thereupon cannot be divulged”.

The ministry gave a similar reply regarding a GoM on Taj International Aviation Hub at Greater Noida.

The department of administrative reforms and public grievances, which considered a report to strengthen the RTI Act, failed to provide the information sought. Instead, it directed the applicant to visit its website to find the required information.

The RTI law, however, clearly states the information has to be provided in the format sought. Citing section 81 (a) of the RTI Act, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion refused to provide information regarding salt pan lands in Mumbai and its suburbs. Providing such information will “prejudicially affect the economic interest of the state”, it said.

The ministry of finance provided details of the decision on price of sale of shares of Central Public Sector Enterprises, but refused to give the minutes citing section 8 of the RTI Act, which says the information cannot be provided unless the decision is completed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.