A Concerted Attack on RTI

Context:  While the Right to Information (RTI) has been upheld by the Supreme Court as a fundamental right flowing from Article 19, a persistent attack on the transparency watchdogs act as the worst blow to RTI.

Potential of RTI:

• Most extensively used transparency legislation in the world: with nearly six million application filed every year, a large proportion of which are sourced from the poorest and marginalised sections.
• Role in COVID crisis: 
• The law has been widely used to seek information about the availability of medical facilities, like ventilators and ICU beds
• To hold government accountable for the delivery of food-grains and social security bene?ts meant for those in distress, including migrant workers. 

• Checks corruption and arbitrary abuse of power: It shows truth to the power.

• For, E.g. Information has been accessed about the anonymous electoral bonds through which thousands of crores have been channelled into political parties.
• The Prime Minister’s O?ce has been queried about the expenditure of the PM CARES Fund set up to provide relief during disasters like the current pandemic. 
• Citizens empowerment: By giving every citizen of India the right to access government files and records, the law has potentially created 1.3 billion whistle-blowers and auditors.

Challenges to RTI -  An analysis of the attack on the transparency watchdogs (Information Commissions (ICs)) by the State.

• Regressive amendments in 2019: which did away with the statutory provision of fixed tenure and high status (salaries) conferred on the commissioners.

• Huge Vacancies: Despite Supreme Court orders, six out of 11 posts of commissioners are currently vacant in the Central Information Commission (CIC). (The CIC is headless for the 5th time in last six years!)
• Eight State Information Commissions are functioning without a chief. Two commissions — Tripura and Jharkhand — are to tally defunct with no commissioners. 

Conclusion: As the RTI law completes 15 years, it is time for the citizens to assert themselves and protect their fundamental right to information, which they attained after a long struggle.