Re: Activists demand no exemption for UP Lokayukta from the RTI Act

http://www.merinews.com/article/activists-demand-no-exemption-for-up-lokayukta-from-the-rti-act/15873348.shtml

> Activists demand no exemption for UP Lokayukta from the RTI Act
>
> The Uttar Pradesh Campaign to Protect RTI (UPCPRI), the voice of
> majority of RTI Activists of Uttar Pradesh ,the RTI wing of
> YAISHWARYAJ Seva Sansthan, a Lucknow-based NGO organized a meeting of
> RTI activists in Lucknow on Tuesday, and put forth this demand.
>
> NOTED SOCIAL activist Usha Sharma, Vishnu Datt Mishra, Prabhuta
> Mishra, Babita Singh, and RTI activists, lawyers, enginners,
> professors, retired government officials and others, took part in the
> meeting. Urvashi Sharma, Coordinator of UPCPRI, chaired the meeting.
>
>
> Inaugurating the meeting, Sharma said that the Uttar Pradesh
> government seems baffled by the use of the right to information in
> rooting out corruption in every walk of life so it has once again
> striking back - to weaken the seven-year old RTI act. The Samajwadi
> Party-led Government in Uttar Pradesh (UP) has launched a battle
> against this law by keeping UP Lokayukta out of the RTI ambit.
>
> Prabhuta Mishra said that as we all know that on July 31,2012 Uttar
> Pradesh Cabinet decided to notify the Lokayukta as an exempt
> organization under Section 24(4) of the Right to Information Act (RTI
> Act) and put it in second schedule. She added that the cabinet
> decision is contrary to government's promise to strengthen the
> Lokayukta.
>
> In its election manifesto, Samajwadi Party had promised to take steps
> to strengthen the office of the Lokayukta, but instead of making it
> more transparent, the government first increased the tenure of the
> Lokayukta to eight years, then it authorized the Lokayukta to penalize
> persons who level frivolous charges against any public servant. Now,
> with the cabinet approving a proposal to keep the Lokayukta outside
> the ambit of the RTI Act, the activists have every reason to doubt
> about further dilution and politicization of the Lokayukta
> organization.
>
> Also Read :GTA polls - a milestone of political understanding
> "The UP government's decision to keep the office of Lokayukta outside
> the RTI Act was not at all needed as RTI Act itself provides
> protection to the provisions of the UP Lokayukta Act 1975. UP
> Lokayukta office was free not to provide information about the
> ongoing investigation under the Right to Information Act also. Section
> 8(1)(g) and 8(1)(h) of RTI act takes proper care of section 10 and
> section 15 of the Lokayukta Act. The section 10 of the UP Lokayukta
> Act states that Investigation to be conducted by the Lokayukta or his
> deputy should be conducted in private, and in particular, the identity
> of the complainant and of the public servant affected by the
> investigation should not be disclosed to the public or
> the press whether before, during or after the investigation. The
> Section 15 of the Act states that any information or any evidence
> obtained by the Lokayukta office in the course of investigation should
> be confidential. keeping UP Lokayukta out of RTI ambit is one of the
> many attacks being launched against the transparency regime by the
> very system which the RTI Act seeks to reform," added Vishnu Datt
> Mishra.
>