Bring corporates under RTI: Nitish Kumar

NEW DELHI:Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday made a strong push for expanding the scope of Right to Information ( RTI) Act, demanding that corporate sector and public-private-partnership (PPP) projects be brought under it, and joined the debate that started with the UPA expressing misgivings about the application of the transparency law it had enacted itself.

Delivering the valedictory address at the Sixth Annual Convention of the Central Information Commission , Kumar asked: “Companies have shareholders’ money as well as investment from institutions. What is wrong if information about them is given?”

He also made a pitch for PPP projects being brought under the RTI’s ambit.

Kumar’s argument for expanding RTI’s scope comes when the government seems to have developed misgivings about the transparency law. The new-found reservations of the UPA which not so long ago touted the RTI as its accomplishment were articulated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday in his inaugural address at the Central Information Convention.
However, the Bihar CM, who called the RTI a revolutionary measure, took an empathetic view of the fears associated with its application. “When a new thing comes it gives problem,” said Kumar.

Urging the authorities not to fight shy of parting with information, he said that governments would gradually get used to transparency.