Opposition to amendments in the Right to Information (RTI) rules in the state seems to have started all over again.
Opposition to amendments in the Right to Information (RTI) rules in the state seems to have started all over again. RTI activist and National Advisory Council (NAC) member, Aruna Roy has written to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan to repeal the amendments.
The state government in January had come out with three amendments, of which applications being limited to a single subject and applications not being more than 150 words impacted the RTI movement in a big way. The third was not allowing applicants to carry anything else other than a pencil while inspecting documents.
In her letter dated July 17, Roy states that the amendments itself are contrary to the RTI Act framed by the Parliament. Citing section 6 (3) (ii), she elaborates in the letter, “The subject matter of which is more closely connected with the functions of another public authority, the public authority to which such application is made, shall transfer the application or such part of it as may be appropriate to that other public authority and inform the applicant immediately about such transfer.”
This, she says, clearly states that the Act allows an application to contain multiple subjects. She further adds that while deciding on the Act, it was considered that “defining of what constitutes a single subject matter is subjective and can potentially lead to arbitrary interpretations.”
Roy further points out the contradiction by Chavan on the amendment issue. As the central minister of department of personnel and training, Chavan had himself struck down the proposal of limiting RTI applications to 500 words. “Even these (500 words) could have been considered by the Maharashtra government. However, in spite of repeated letters and protests from the civil society, they are ratified and are in force,” the letter states.
“We will now be starting the agitations against the amendments all over again. We have already given a letter to the CM’s personal secretary, AK Jain. He has assured that he will look into the matter and will have discussions on it,” said Bhaskar Prabhu of Mahiti Adhikar Manch, who submitted the letter to Jain.
Jain was not reachable for his comments.
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