‘Stop PIOs from forwarding applications to pvt firms’

The department of labour,energy and industries,while dealing with an RTI application filed by Newsline seeking a copy of the MoU between the state government and a private telecommunication company,had forwarded the application to the private company,asking it to provide a copy of the same. Other than being a breach of the RTI Act,this trend is also exposing the identity,address and phone number of the RTI users. Former information commissioners and senior activists had stated that this would would seriously undermine the safety of RTI users.

Batra,in his letter to secretary DoPT,stated that this in contravention with Section 2 (f) and 6(3) of the RTI Act. He pointed out that,these sections of the Act,makes it mandatory for the PIO to collect information and if need be,transfer the applications to public authorities. “Private companies do not constitute public authorities,and thus,applications can’t be transferred to them. It is for the public authority to collect the information without disclosing the identity of the information-seeker,” the letter stated.

Pointing out the history of RTI appellants killed so far and danger lurking for whistleblowers,Batra asked DoPT to immediately issue an advisory to all authorities concerned to stop the practice of sharing information-seekers’ personal information with private bodies/individuals.