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Cabinet drops controversial gag order on RTI Act

The notification issued by government on January 27 only mentions that T-branch was exempted from RTI.

Thiruvananthapuram: The cabinet on Tuesday decided to withdraw the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau's office order exempting the chief minister, former chief minister, ministers, former ministers, MPs, MLAs and all-India civil service officers from the purview of the Right to Information Act.

At the cabinet briefing, the chief minister said that the Vigilance office order issued on January 18 had created confusion and hence it had been withdrawn. However, the VACB's order that the details of persons confidentially helping Vigilance probe should not be given out under RTI Act will stay.

According to sources, while the VACB proposed to government to exempt top secret section (T-branch) from RTI in 2010, only a few matters like confidential verifications and quick verifications were under the purview of T-branch.

However, as per the officer order issued by VACB director on this January 18, more matters, including cases against CM, ministers, former ministers and all India civil service officials were under T-branch. The notification issued by government on January 27 only mentions that T-branch was exempted from RTI.

Hence the matters that got exempted became much wider. In order to clear the confusion, the government would have to either specify in the notification the matters to be exempted from RTI or VACB should clarify the matters being dealt with by the T-branch.

The cabinet decision comes in the wake of KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran shooting off a letter to the chief minister to withdraw the order exempting the Vigilance from the RTI Act. The chief minister pointed out that providing information about the persons giving confidential details to the Vigilance could pose a threat to their lives.

Under these circumstances, the order exempting Vigilance T branch's six sections from the purview of the RTI will remain. Last week, the home secretary and law secretary were summoned to the cabinet and their views were sought.

The chief minister said the Vigilance in Tamil Nadu and Karnatka had been completely exempted from the RTI Act. The Kerala Police Intelligence wing is also out of the RTI Act purview.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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