The government has issued a notification exempting the CBI, NIA and the National Intelligence Grid from the RTI loop by adding them into the second schedule of the RTI Act.
It is also interesting to note that while the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) were already featured in the second schedule, the same is not true of the defence services. Hence, to exemplify, while the Army is fully amenable to the RTI Act, the BSF is not. Incongruous to say the least.
Actually, it is also not understandable as to why the second schedule is required at all. The Act already exempts information related to operational matters, investigation, national security etc from disclosure and hence any such information can inherently be denied under the Act, notwithstanding the availability of the second schedule. In fact, when the proposal to place the CBI in the second schedule was mooted, there were voices within the govt which favoured the dissolution of the second schedule altogether and for denying information under the relevant sub-clauses of Section 8 of the Act whenever required, which in fact would have been a more just course.
Well, whatever floats the boat !
Note : Comment moderation and publishing of new blogposts would be slow for the next few days during the absence of Maj Navdeep Singh who is on vacation.
3 comments:
with all strong cdrs to fight ..the scenario when QM of a unit can be subjected to a chk vide RTI is not far away.....
It is also not far away when the second schedule will run into hundreds of pages and a need will be created for an organisation to manage denial of information headed by secretary level bureaucrat and the associated staff,and branches thereof
http://90paisa.blogspot.com/2011/07/inclusion-of-cbi-natgrid-and-nia-in.html
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