SHILLONG: The Standing Conference of Public Representatives (SCOPE) director UD Choubey has advocated the need to revisit the RTI Act, 2005 by bringing the private sector under the ambit of this legislation.
“I think it is necessary to bring the private sector under an act, especially on the accusations that there is rampant corruption in this sector even more compared to the public sector. I do not see any problem in revisiting the act especially after ten years of its enactment,” Choubey said after launching a software for ‘Online Processing of RTI application’ during the inaugural function of the two-day seventh symposium on implementation of the RTI Act, 2005 here on Monday.
He strongly advocated in bringing more sectors under the ambit of RTI Act for bringing transparency and accountability and above all level playing.
SCOPE is an apex professional organization representing the Central Government Public Enterprises in India. The organization is a major interface between public and government enterprises.
It enable enterprises to regularly deliberate on various policy issues and interact with government to enhance the efficiency and profitability of public sectors.
He also feels that there has been a misuse of the RTI Act to a certain extent.
“We need to pluck the loopholes by bring more amendment of the act to make it more effective and also to prevent the legislation from being misused,” the director said even though he did not elaborate how the act was misused.
Choubey also questioned on the competency of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) to reply to the various queries under the Act.
“I am not sure if the CIC is competent enough to be able to reply the queries which are being raised especially in the present context where an officer who is near its superannuation is being appointed as the commissioner to head the information commission,” he said
Choubey also suggested that there is a need to provide training to the various officers who are heading the Central Information Commission (CIC) and various States Information Commissions (SICs) to enable them to handle their job efficiently.
“We can even send these officers for training abroad to familiarize themselves with all the latest development and technology. Such an initiative is very critical even if these officers have the experience of heading the administration for more than 30 years since the job of the CIC is a professional one,” Choubey said.
He also stressed on the need to strengthen the commission by increasing its manpower.
“I am aware that the commission at present is working under difficult situation due to lack of staff. We need to increase the manpower to enable the commission to deliver its job in an effective manner,” the director added.
He appreciated the implementation of RTI Act and said that undoubtedly, the transparency is enhancing the efficiency in the working and better image of public sector enterprises.
Meanwhile, Former CIC Joint Secretary in charge of Law, Aakash Deep Chakravarti said that the various amendments to the RTI Act were possible due to the public movement.
“It is the people who are pressurizing the Government authorities to function in a transparent manner. Many major scams have been unfolded in recent past since the people have used the RTI Act to expose the various wrongdoings within the Government machinery,” Charkravarti said.
He also attributed pressure on the part of the public which has brought the political parties under the ambit of the RTI Act.
‘It is a different case that none of the political parties till date are yet to appoint Chief Information Public Officers (CIPOs),” former CIC joint secretary in charge Law said.
C.D. Kynjing, State Chief Information Commissioner, Meghalaya highlighted the usefulness of the RTI Act which has brought transparency in the working of companies. He further said that the RTI Act has been helping the common man in getting the information and has been acting as a tool in fighting corruption.
Satyabarata Borgohain, Director (Personnel), NEEPCO in his concluding remarks highlighted the initiatives of SCOPE / CPSEs in implementations of RTI Act.
O.P. Khorwal, Convener, RTI Steering Committee of SCOPE gave brief overview of the programme and the various initiatives taken by SCOPE which include providing standard RTI manuals.