'Attempt by PM or others to water down RTI must be resisted'

Aruna Roy, a meber of National Advisory Council, Saturday said the inefficiency of the government had been exposed through Right to information (RTI) Act, and attempts to dilute it -- by the Prime Minister or anybody else -- should be resisted.

"We reject the statement by the Prime Minister," Roy said in Panaji. "The RTI is strengthening the foundations of democracy."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said on Monday that RTI must not affect "deliberative processes" in the government, as it could discourage honest officers from expressing themselves fully.

"Efforts to dilute and weaken it, by the Prime Minister or anybody else, have to be resisted at any cost, by writing letters or carrying out dharnas or by other means," she said.

"They (government) are saying because of the RTI their officers are not willing to write notes. I say that they never wrote notes. A section of officers wrote a note and many people just signed on it," Roy said.

Commonly, officers refuse to put down their opinions, she said. "The noting has to be done up to the under-secretary level," said Roy, who spearheads National Campaign for People's  Right to Information (NCPRI).

"This business of not noting indicates, that RTI is exposing that officers are inefficient. They get paid to write note, if they are not writing notes, they are not doing their basic job."

The PM should ask such officers to leave, she said.