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Activists demand intelligence, para-military forces answer RTIs
Sunday May 27, 2012 06:29:39 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: Activists
and government representatives met here to discuss ways to make
the dissemination process under the Right To Information (RTI) Act
more transparent and accountable and demanded that intelligence
agencies and the paramilitary forces respond to queries under the
law.
A two day national conference - 'National Security and People's
Right to Information in India - The Lady Godiva Syndrome' -
organized by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and
Indian Institute of Public Administration opened here Sunday.
"We are developing a set of principles that can guide
decision-making on information requests relating to national
security," Venkatesh Nayak, programme coordinator of CHRI told
IANS.
"We want intelligence and para-military forces not to refuse to
answer RTIs, especially those pertaining to corruption and human
rights, by claiming that the information will be a threat to
national security," he added.
Nayak said that a statutory body must be in place to keep watch on
government departments who refuse to answer even those queries not
related to national security, and the reasons given by them must
be justified.
The participants discussed and shared case studies where several
defence and intelligence agencies refused to answer their RTIs by
unnecessarily relating them to national security.
The conference also took stock of the decisions of information
commissions and courts regarding information access disputes
relating to national security.
Nayak informed that CHRI is part of a world-wide coalition of
organisations engaged in developing a set of principles to guide
decision-making on information requests involving national
security.
"At this conference, we propose to discuss and refine these draft
principles with reference to the Indian experience," Nayak added.
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