Government denies info on land ordinance under RTI Act

NEW DELHI: The debate over land acquisition may have acquired a tinge of class-war like rhetoric that has the government miffed, but transparency activists feel the administration is not helping their own case by denying information under the Right to Information Act.

Venkatesh Nayak of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative had filed an application in President’s Secretariat seeking file notings and other material that formed the basis for the President to “be satisfied that circumstances existed for taking immediate action to amend the land acquisition law through an Ordinance”.

His application was transferred to department of land resources under rural development ministry for providing information. The department did not reply within the mandatory period of 30 days and Nayak filed a first appeal. In March, the department replied, “There is no such information available in department of land resources.” The application was once again transferred back to President’s Secretariat.

While the department denied information to Nayak, it admitted to another applicant that it could not provide this information. In this case as well the matter went up to the first appellate authority as the ministry public information officer did not provide the information.