Dr. Jitendra Singh made multiple claims about the RTI. Here is a fact check of
some of those claims. The Minister of State in the Department ofPersonnel & Training (DoPT), Dr.Jitendra Singh on 19 July, 2019, during the introduction of the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019,spoke at length about the NDA government’s achievements and initiatives forRTI. He made multiple claims while introducing the bill in the Lok Sabha.Similar claims were tweeted by the BJP later. In this story, we look atthree specific claims made by the minister. The amendment is now passed by both the houses On 19 July 2019, the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was introduced in the Lok Sabha by the government. The Bill, which waslater passed on Monday, 22 July, had proposals which gave powers to the CentralGovernment to fix salaries and tenures as well as set the service conditionsfor the Information Commissioners at both the Central and State level. Thissparked a debate in both the houses of parliament since a majority of theopposition were against the bill stating that the bill was not sent forparliamentary scrutiny and that it lacked legislative competence. The bill wasalso referred to as the RTI ‘Elimination’ bill by the opposition. During the debate, Dr. Jitendra Singh, made a few claims regarding therole of the NDA Government in upholding the objective of the Right To Information Act of 2005 that was formulatedto empower citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the functioningof the government, contain corruption and make democracy work for the people inthe real sense. When was the RTI Online portal launched? One of the claims made by the minister is that the NDA governmentlaunched the RTI online portal to ensure thatcitizens can file RTIs 24 hours a day instead of it being a 10am to 5pm affair. In order to substantiate his point stating that the NDA government hasalways been working towards the refinement of the act, the minister said thatit was the Modi-led NDA government that introduced the online web portal forRTI. But an office memorandum (OM) dated 22 April, 2013 released by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensionshad details regarding the launch of the online portal for RTI along with itslink. In this OM, it has been clearly statedthat ‘a Web Portal namely RTI Online with url https://rtionline.gov.in has been launched. This portal, developed by NIC, is a facility for the Indian Citizens to online file RTI applications and first appeals and also to make online payment of RTI fees…’ It has alsobeen mentioned that the facility was then available only for the Department ofPersonnel Training and had details regarding the plans to extend the same toother ministries. When this memorandum was released on 22 April, 2013, the then Ministerof State of the department was V. Narayanaswamy. The UPAgovernment was in power in the year 2013. Also, in the press release made on 17 March 2017, we can see that the Secretary, DoPT, B P Sharma mentioned that the RTI Online Portal was launched in August 2013. The Union Minister had mentioned that the government was persuading more states and departments to adopt this. The Secretary, DoPT, further added that as on 1 April, 2016, only 477 Public Authorities (PAs) were aligned with the portal. An additional 1,363 more PAs aligned with the same by 17 March, 2017. Further, 198 PAs under the Delhi Government also adopted the portal. Plans to include PAs from Puducherry and Chandigarh by the end of April 2017 have also been mentioned in the press release. From this, we can infer that the NDA Government did take initiatives to include more PAs in the portal. But, to say that the NDA government launched the portal is not true. Claim: NDA Government launched the RTI online portal for 24/7 filing of RTI applications. Fact: An Office Memorandum released in April 2013 clearly mentions the launch of online portal to file RTI and it was during the UPA government. The claim made by the minister ishence FALSE. Did the NDA government let the leader of the single largest group in the opposition in the selection committee? The minister also claimed that since theCongress did not get the Leader of Opposition status, the NDA Government letthe leader of the single largest group in the opposition a member of theselection committee of the Information Commissioners. While accusing the opposition for having made a clumsy RTI Act, theminister claimed that it was the NDA government that included the leader of thesingle largest group in the opposition in the selection commit though theCongress did not have the Leader of Opposition status. But a glimpse into theRTI Act, as it was passed in 2005 reveals the following.