New Delhi, Oct 12. 2019-
Appealing to the people not to misuse the Right to Information (RTI), Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday asserted that the Centre was working to minimise the use of the Act which could be achieved by putting maximum information in public domains.
The Home Minister made the announcement at the 14th Annual Convention of Central Information Commission.
“The government’s motive is that there should be minimum RTI applications. And, it would be possible only when the people get the information before they need it,” Shah said.
Shah said that the government has taken various steps to put out maximum information to the public to reduce the need for filing an RTI.
He, however, said that the RTI was very necessary to bridge the gap between the people and the government.
Informing about an alternate technology to get information without filing RTI applications, Shah said that a dashboard system for various schemes has been introduced by the Narendra Modi-led government to facilitate people in getting information online.
With the use of the system in various schemes, Shah said that the technology has even enabled the poorest of beneficiaries in order to receive information about the schemes being provided to them.
“We are now two steps ahead of the RTI with the dashboard system,” he said.
The Home Minister also noted that instances of misuing the Act has been very low and that around 2.5 crore RTI applications have been dealt with successfully since 2005.
Shah declared that India was the “first among all countries in the world” which has provided information to the grass-root level with the help of the Central Information Commission at state level and with the contribution of over 5 lakh officers.
Accepting that the RTI was a good attempt to establish a corruption-free good governance, Shah said that the Act controls the rights and also ensures justice to the people.
The Home Minister appealed to the Central Information Commissioner Sudhir Bhargava to not only deal with the RTI applications but also adopt measures to sensitize people to reduce the use of the Act. (Agency)
