Bring all public-centric projects under RTI: Activists

Activists and applicants have said that Mumbai Metro and all other public-centric projects must come under the RTI Act. dna had reported a veil of secrecy in RInfra giving out details about the functioning of the Mumbai Metro.

While calling for such bodies to be under RTI, they also want all authorities to exercise their power so that citizens get information under RTI when sought from them.

Bhaskar Prabhu, an RTI activist, cited the rule book, saying: "MMOPL should be under the RTI Act. There is a clause in the Act that anything that is in public interest should be under RTI. There is also another clause stating that if information is provided to the legislature about a project, even the public has the right to access information."

Prabhu also re-iterated the demand that Central Information Commission (CIC) had made some time back. CIC had asked the Planning Commission to include all the public-private partnership projects under the RTI Act.

"Sadly, the present situation is such that the private players are more powerful than the government," opined Prabhu.

"It was particularly disturbing to read that even the safety report was not provided. In fact, the MMRDA should make sure that all such information is available with them. They need to exercise their power," said Venkatesh Nayak, programme coordinator for access to information programme at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.

Nayak added: "At the end of the day, Metro or any other public-centric project run by any company is not only for their family members. Public is using it and they have some good questions that pertain to their safety that need to be answered."