Revisiting transparency law
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 22 2013 -

It is interesting to know that after 7 years of its enactment, the Centre has decided to conduct a re-study on Right to Information (RTI) Act to assess its implementation across the country and find ways to address bottlenecks faced by various stakeholders.

If we remember correctly, the Government had earlier got a study conducted by Princewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) in 2009 on the key issues and constrains in implementation of the Act that seeks 'to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens'.

The findings of the said study came up with the startling revelation that more than 75% of the citizens surveyed said they were dissatisfied with the quality of information being provided while the public information officers complained of ineffective record management system in the government which led to delay in processing RTI applications.

That is why we say that the latest decision for a re-study on the transparency law is interesting, because for the first time, the Government would be attempting to assess 'public perception about the extent of reduction in corruption" and "calculate the cost to the government in providing information under RTI".

The proposed study would also include trends in filing of RTI applications or appeals across the country to understand the type of information normally sought by the public and the experiences of Government officials in this regard.

As a matter of fact, the need for an urgent re-look at the present system of implementing the transparency law has already been hinted at by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan himself when he addressed the annual convention of the State Information Commissioners at New Delhi on October 12 last year.

There, the Prime Minister took serious note over 'frivolous and vexatious' use of the Act in demanding information covering a long time that possibly serves no public purpose and observed that it was a drain on the resources of the public authorities, leading to diversion of precious man-hours.

In fact, various Government officials have also complained over huge cost they have to bear to divert resources in the effort to answer RTI pleas even though, as per the guidelines of the Act, a fee of just Rs 10 is required for seeking information from any public authority.

On the other hand, we should not lost sight of the fact that despite the claim that implementation of the Act has been able to bring about more transparency and accountability in the governance, there have been numerous cases of threats on the lives of information seekers.

RTI activists in Manipur have been no exception to such threats and they are being forced to withdraw their applications. We feel this aspect needs to be addressed even more urgently than any other aspects, if the Centre actually intends to strengthen RTI regime at all.