M A I N   N E W S

Sonia unhappy over changes in RTI Act
Anita Katyal
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 21
Congress President Sonia Gandhi is reportedly unhappy with the Union Cabinet’s decision to amend the Right to Information Act, debarring bureaucratic notings on files from being made public.

Yesterday’s modification is being viewed as a clear dilution of the Act, which has been touted as the brainchild of the National Advisory Council (NAC), earlier headed by Mrs Gandhi. Speaking at innumerable party fora and public functions, the Congress President has repeatedly referred to the passage and successful implementation of this Bill and the national rural employment guarantee programme as one of the major achievements of the UPA Government.

Congress sources admitted that since Mrs Gandhi had taken so much personal interest in pushing through this legislation, she could not be expected to be happy with these changes. This issue is learnt to have figured at the meeting of the core committee, held every Friday and attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mrs Gandhi, Union ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil, Arjun Singh, senior Congress leader A.K.Anthony and Mr Ahmed Patel, Political Secretary to the Congress President.

Although publicly the party has little choice but defend the UPA Government’s decision, several Congress members believe that this move will take the sheen away from this otherwise people-friendly legislation.

Termed as a pro-people Act, the legislation was aimed at making the bureaucracy more transparent and accountable. The latest amendment to disallow disclosure of file notings is learnt to have been pushed through under pressure from bureaucrats on the plea that this can be misused and will eventually hamper decision-making.

Concerned at the possibility of an adverse public response, a section in the party is planning to press the leadership for an internal discussion on this matter. While opposing the latest amendment, several senior Congress leaders said they will write in their objections to the Congress President.

“I think it is still too early to be making such changes in the Act. It has been implemented only recently, we should have allowed it to evolve for a year or two before bringing in any modifications,” commented a senior Congress leader.

For the record, however, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi had a tough time today defending the government’s decision and even sought to blame it on “coalition compulsions”. 

ACR outside RTI purview: Ansari
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 21
While the Manmohan Singh Cabinet, under pressure from bureaucrats, approved an amendment to the Right to Information Act debarring file noting from its purview, the officialdom lost its case before the Central Information Commission (CIC) to make the Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) public.

“Apart from being personal information, ACRs of officers and employees need not be disclosed because they do not contribute to any public interest”, Prof M.M. Ansari, Information Commissioner at the CIC ruled.

The three-page order said it was also possible that many officers might not like their assessment by their superiors to go into the hands of all and sundry. If the reports were good, these might attract envy and if those were bad, ridicule and derision. Either way it affected the employee and the organisation he worked for.

The CIC ruling came on a petition filed by an RBI officer demanding the marks awarded to him on the performance appraisal reports for the past five years and marks awarded in the interview held for promotion.

The appellant contended that the CPIO and the appellate authority had denied those information resulting in an appeal before the CIC.

“The ACRs are protected from disclosure because arguably such disclosure seriously harm interpersonal relationship in a given organisation”, the order said.

“The ACR notings represent an interaction based on trust and confidence between the officers involved in initiating, reviewing or accepting the ACRs. These officers could be seriously embarrassed and even compromised if their notings are made public. There are, thus, reasonable grounds to protect all such information through a proper classification under the Official Secrets Act”, Prof Ansari said.

The Information Commissioner ruled that “no public purpose is going to be served by disclosing this information. On the contrary it may lead to harming public interest in terms of compromising objectivity of assessment, which is the core and the substance of the ACR, which may result from the uneasiness of the reporting, reviewing and the accepting officers from the knowledge that their comments were no longer confidential.