Re: [HumJanenge] Arvind Kejriwal - IT Notice

Dear Mr Devasahayam

I am confining myself to the Central RTI Act 2005. The facts are as follows

1) There were serious flaws in the FOI Act 2002 which rendered it weak and unimplementable.

2) Consequently the Rules for the said Act were not put in place to bring it into effect.

3) Immediately since 2003 a series of drafting exercises to amend / replace the FOI Act took place within DoPT. This exercise was carried out internally within DoPT (at which stage I and some other concerned private persons literally went over the drafts clause by clause to shoot down bizarre suggestions originating from NCPRI people and NAC interference and make valid suggestions). The DoPT had a core team ultimately under Mr Tiwari and he took a very keen interest in what was going on - literally he was the draftsman of this Act.

4) Finally when the Bill went to Parliament at the Committee stage the NCPRI and CHRI persisted with their nonsensical suggestions (like bring private companies within RTI etc), this did not work but about 30 modifications were made by Committee which watered down the Act. Finally when the Bill was put up in Parliament it was diluted even further (BJP had walked out) and the biggest prolem was that they added State Governments to RTI at last moiment which has caused many gray areas in the Act ("appropriate Govt" ??). I had no role to play while the Bill was in the Parliamentary process - since it was an all out war between DoPT babus and the NAC / NCPRI brigade.

5) Arvind Kejriwal had hardly anything to do / say in the formulation of RTI Act 2005 considering his seniors (!!!) in NCPRI.

6) The sitaution is analogous to the RTI Draft Rules contoversy of last year. NAC/NCPRI submitted aboiut 12 pages of text. The war is between DoPT and NAC/NCPRI. All my comments are in public domain (running into about 273 pages). My own "lobbying" can be inspected in DoPT. When the Rules finally come out (???) who will get the credit in the media - the foreign finaced haramis like Aruna Roy OR members of this hold-out group ?

Sarbajit

On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 10:59 PM, Devasahayam MG <mgd@airtelmail.in> wrote:

This debate is turning bizare. Can some one enlighten us as to the true story behind the RTI Act and its real heroes and heroines?

M.G.Devasahayam
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