The Prime Minister’s statement to constrict the scope and
objective of the R.T.I Act 2005 does not auger well with the democratic notion
of transparency in governance. He has also found fault with the most important provision
of the Act that bars the P.I.O to question motive of the information seeker.
Recently the judiciary also has put a wide range of
restrictions on the flow of information debilitating provisions of the Act. After
initial success in effective implementation of the inchoate legislation under
the then Chief Central Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah, now after 7
years all the organs of the democracy except the Press have been trying hard to
throttle the Act.
In Bihar also the inaugural dispenses of information under
Justice S.K Singh at the state commission were quite satisfactory. But with the
appointment of Ashok Chaudhary at the helm, the transparency law became a
liability rather causality.
We find today that all the state actors across the board; the
states, the Centre or the judiciary are not very enthusiastic to part with information
as sought for by people.
The credit goes to the RTI Act that scams and scandals are
being exposed every now and then and there is fear in the mind of the public authorities for
doing wrong.
The need of the hour is to put the Act in the 9th
schedule of the Constitution vide Art.-31B.
No comments:
Post a Comment