New Delhi: In a move that could restrict the Right to Information, the Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the introduction of a bill in Parliament to amend the present law to exclude from public notings on files by officials in 'a few areas'.
The decision has been done following objections raised by some government organisations, like UPSC, that file notings should not be made public, Information Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi told reporters after a meeting of the Union Cabinet cleared the amendment.
The organisations had opined that while decisions taken could be conveyed, but not in terms of the details as to how the decisions were arrived at. "Decisions can be conveyed, not in terms of details about what the Under Secretary or Joint Secretary wrote or what the Secretary disapproved," he said.
Dasmunsi said there were 'certain ambiguities' in the Right to Information Act 2005 and file notings in a 'few areas' could be exempted. He said such exemptions are granted in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
Meanwhile, the BJP on Thursday slammed the government on the Right To Information (RTI) Act, saying it was brought into force with a big hype, but it turned out to be a damp squib.
Talking to mediapersons, BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley said a big hype was created over the Act with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh going to the extent of advocating to make official notings public.
But as disclosures were becoming more and more embarrassing, the government was now saying that certain facts could not be revealed. He said he had filed a petition under the RTI Act to get the details of the correspondence between CBI and Crown Prosecution of London. But it had not been made available to him on the ground that the Bofors case was still on.
The fact was that there was no link between CBI order defreezing accounts of Ottavio Quattorochi and the Bofors case.
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