info tap or close it ??
"Gill was becoming unaccountable while making RTI comment: CIC
New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) Sports Minister M S Gill was "absolutely
becoming unaccountable" when he asked the Members of Parliament to
take the RTI route to get information, new Chief Information
Commissioner A N Tiwari said asserting that mere dependence on the RTI
Act will not promote transparency. "Because there is RTI, some people
are saying unless
you come through RTI, we will not give you information.
Latest example is M S Gill talking in Parliament that come through RTI
route. How can you say that? It is absolutely becoming unaccountable.
You should say that my system is such that you don't need RTI to get
information," he told PTI. Tiwari said he would start a dialogue with
all the "government instrumentalities" to identify documents and
records which cannot be made public, so that all remaining records
could be made available to public without any use of the
transparency law. "My proposal to government is that they create a
negative list of documents which cannot be disclosed. The rest of the
files should be open which can be accessed by citizens without the use
of RTI. RTI works best when t is used the least," Tiwari said. He
said in such a regime, the use of RTI Act would be limited to
documents and records which have not been brought in the open category
thus making the use of transparency law even more effective.
Speaking on the success of transparency regime in the country, Tiwari
said mere dependence on the RTI Act will not promote openness in the
system which is trained to have an "intuitive reflex to secrecy".
"Everyone in government is scared about what will happen if we become
transparent," he said. He said while the present system of getting
information through RTI should continue, at the same time there
should be a dialogue with all the "government instrumentalities about
an institutional adherence to transparency."
64-year old Tiwari, who succeeded Wajahat Habibullah, said while
opening documents for public scrutiny, "one size fits all" will not
work. The class of documents which can be disclosed in one
organisation can be confidential for another organisation. On the
issue of proposed changes in the RTI Act which are being contemplated
by the government, he said, "Civil society does not have arguments for
not amending the Act but those who want to amend the act also do not
have the arguments for urgency of bringing the changes. Both are
working with insufficient information." He said there were some issues
like succession of the CIC and disclosure of documents which have
potential to impede the investigations which need to be addressed
through changes.
Tiwari, a political science scholar and a former bureaucrat, said one
of his priorities is to streamline the Registry of the Central
Information Commission which has come under criticism for delays in
transferring appeals to offices of the information commissioners
concerned.
On Oct 3, 8:14 pm, RTI_India Mailinglist <rtiindia.l...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> To make transparency regime more effective, the government should
> prepare a list of documents which cannot be made public and open up
> remaining records, new Chief Information Commissioner A N Tiwari said
> today.
>
> "*My proposal to government is that they create a negative list of
> documents which cannot be disclosed*. The rest of the files should be
> open which can be accessed by citizens without the use of RTI. RTI
> works best when it is used the least," Tiwari told PTI in his first
> interview after taking oath of office.
>
> He said in such a regime, the use of RTI Act would be limited to
> documents and records which have not been brought in the open category
> thus making the use of transparency law even more effective.
>
> Speaking on the success of transparency regime in the country, Tiwari
> said mere dependence on the RTI Act will not promote openness in the
> system which is trained to have an "intuitive reflex to secrecy.
>
> * trackback:*http://www.indianexpress.com/news/RTI-works-the-best-when-used-the-le...
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