A logo for the Right to Information (RTI) Act, designed by a faculty of the National Institute of Design (NID), created quite a buzz in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
A logo for the Right to Information (RTI) Act, designed by a faculty of the National Institute of Design (NID), created quite a buzz in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. But the revelation, it seems, has not gone down too well with RTI activists in the city. They have not only expressed their displeasure by saying the process lacks ‘transparency’, but also filed an RTI seeking details pertaining to the entire process.
The Union ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions had given the task of designing the RTI logo to Tarun Deep Girdher, a faculty of NID.
On learning about the development through media, city-based social activist Vinod Pandya filed an RTI application on Wednesday, seeking clarity on why the project of designing the logo was assigned only to one individual or institute and not thrown open to public competition, like in the case of the
rupee symbol.
“The RTI Act has been introduced to empower the public. But, ironically, the opinion of the masses was not sought while creating the logo,” said Pandya, who has also won the 2010 RTI award. “A competition open to public would have been the most appropriate way to go about it,” he added.
The RTI application filed by Pandya was submitted to the office of the chief information commissioner at Gandhinagar. It raised several questions, like whether any advertisement was placed in any newspaper about the logo, which agencies were contacted, whether the process involves common people’s opinion at any instance, who chose the final logo and what were the responses received, etc. It also asked about the total expense incurred in developing the logo.
Sharing similar views, another RTI activist, Bharat Jhala, said: “The RTI is for the people, for their benefit. However, the way in which the logo has been developed has defeated the very objective of having it.”
He further said, “Why was no opportunity given to the public? Does this imply that a good logo can be designed only by NID or that people’s opinions are insignificant?”
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