CID's probe task may be taken out of RTI ambit

The State government is contemplating some drastic changes in the RTI rules, which include keeping the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) out of the ambit of the RTI and imposing postal charges on the applicants.

On September 22 last year, a meeting held under the chairmanship of the Additional Chief Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms V Umesh had suggested some major changes. Now, the State government is learnt to have moved ahead to implement the decision.

The key intention of the meeting was to make the Right to Information (RTI) Act popular. But among other things, four important issues were discussed, which have caused discontent among RTI activists in the State. Documents available with Deccan Herald show that the government intended to impose postal charges on the applicants as has been done by the Central government and the Andhra Pradesh government.

It has also intended to keep the investigative task of the CID out  of the RTI ambit, while retaining the administration and services. It has proposed to deploy police constables inside the court hall of the Information Commissioner.

The most contentious issue is blacklisting ‘mischievous’ RTI applicants who habitually harass officials by filing applications. In the meeting, the subject was dropped as there is no such provision in the RTI Act and because it may lead to confusion and misuse by the officialdom. Yet, RTI activists are worried that the government may try to push it through the backdoor.

Veeresh Belur, an RTI activist who accessed the documents, said, “We have learnt that efforts are being made to introduce the clause of blacklisting some RTI activists. Any inclusion of this clause for temporary relief may kill the spirit of the RTI Act and result in misuse by the officials to deny information.”

Other RTI activists too opposed the imposition of postal charges on the applicants as the RTI Act does not speak of any such provision.