PM cautions against middlemen in RTI Act

NEW DELHI: Prime minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said the Right to Information cannot be the privilege of few and cautioned against growth of “professional middlemen” in the use of the Act and promotion of an adversarial relationship among stakeholders of the law.

Terming the implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act as an important “milestone” in the quest for building an enlightened and prosperous society, he said, “We must guard against the growth of professional middlemen in the use of this Act as seen in some other countries.

“And since it is an Act for common benefit in relation to public authority, we are all stakeholders in the Act and must guard against allowing it to become a tool for promotion of an adversarial relationship between stakeholders. This can only serve to weaken the Act,” the PM said.

Mr Singh, who was speaking on the occasion of first anniversary of RTI, did not touch the issue of proposed amendment to remove file notings from the ambit of the legislation but said there will be always be various opinions about the interpretation and implementation of some provisions of the Act.

“This is true of any legislation — particularly those that usher in far reaching changes. In a democratic society, sometimes it takes time for new ideas to take firm root.

“This is part of learning curve any legislation has to undergo. We need to evolve a consensus to facilitate the effective exercise of RTI by the needy, by those who are directly affected by the information,” Mr Singh said.
Pointing out that the right to know was the most fundamental of all rights which are critical for upholding human dignity, he said, “The exercise of RTI cannot be the privilege of the few.”

Emphasising that there was a need to balance the need for information with the limited time, material and human resource available with public authorities, the prime minister said, “Vexatious demands should not be allowed to deprive genuine information seekers of their legitimate claims on limited public resources”.

Mr Singh said RTI was not a substitute for good governance but it has to support and aid good governance.
Expressing satisfaction that “citizens of the country owned the RTI Act with their arms wide open,” he said the Act has become, if anything, a “Peoples’ Law”. The prime minister said whatever may be the differences on the finer points of the Act, “We must all be aware of the course that we are setting for the future of democratic governance.”

Holding that accountability was based on the premise that citizens have access to information on the basis of which they can determine the justness or otherwise of state action, he said “we have kept these means simple, with overriding importance govern to public interest, sweeping aside much of the legacy of colonialism”.