Veterans urge PM Modi not to remove armed forces from ambit of RTI Act

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, May 25

Following reports of the armed forces being removed from the ambit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, ex-servicemen associations have urged the government against taking such a step in the interest of maintaining transparency.

In a letter written to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the Indian Ex-Services League (IESL) has said that the RTI has remained a powerful tool with the veterans and serving community and their families to obtain information and documents concerning their service and pension related issues and to move the authorities into action on routine grievances, besides ensuring transparency in official establishments dealing with such issues.

According to some reports, the governmenthas arrived at an in-principal agreement to exempt the armed forces, the Computer Emergency Response Team and Directorate General of Analytics and Risk Management from the ambit of the RTI Act on grounds of information security.

“Even innocuous documents such as medical board proceedings concerning disabled soldiers and old service records of veterans are only made available through the RTI Act. Many of the military pensioners have not been able to obtain correct pension,” the letter states while pointing out that the system of grievance redressal remains in a shambles.

Stating that RTI was the only way elicit information because as government offices and service establishments do not respond to letters, IESL has also pointed out the RTI Act also led to a massive reduction in litigation as many issues were resolved after disclosure of information.

The league has also said adequate protection is already available in Section 8 and 9 of the Act to withhold operational and security related information and denying the right of a public oriented tool to the armed forces fraternity would place them at a sharp disadvantage vis-à-vis other citizens and also force them to approach the courts for minor issues.