Anjali Bhardwaj & Amrita Johri - The Modi Govt Is Trying To Destroy The RTI Act // Big Brother Logs On? 10 Central Agencies Can Now Snoop On Any Computer
Secrecy in amending
the RTI Act as well as in the appointment of Information Commissioners in the
CIC reveal the government's intention to destroy the spirit of the transparency
law.
With over 6 million
information applications filed every year, the Indian Right to Information (RTI) Act is the most
extensively used transparency legislation globally. The law has empowered
ordinary citizens to hold the government accountable. It has been used for a
range of issues: from exposing lapses in the delivery of essential services and
violation of basic rights, to questioning the highest authorities of the country
on their performance, their decisions, and even their conduct.
A critical provision
of the RTI Act, which gives it teeth, is the setting up of independent
information commissions, in states and at the centre, to receive appeals and
complaints about violations of the Act. The commissions are the final
adjudicators under the law and are empowered to direct governments to disclose
information and impose penalties on erring officials. Thus, the information
commissions are seen as playing a critical role in guaranteeing peoples’ right
to information.
In recent years, there
have been several significant and politically sensitive decisions by
information commissions, including directing the RBI to declare names of
loan defaulters, declaring political parties to be public authorities under the
ambit of the RTI Act and ordering the Delhi University to provide information
regarding the results of the batch of 1978, the year in which Prime
Minister Narendra
Modi claims to have graduated… read more:
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/the-modi-govt-is-trying-to-destroy-the-rti-act-thats-dangerous-for-democracy_in_5c1b6318e4b0407e90775ad4?utm_hp_ref=in-homepageBig Brother Logs On? 10 Central Agencies Can Now Snoop On Any Computer
NEW DELHI: Investigating agencies will have more sweeping powers to intercept and monitor information on computer devices after a new home ministry order signed by Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba on Thursday. Ten central agencies have been equipped with powers of "interception, monitoring and decryption of any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer".
HIGHLIGHTS
- Home Ministry gives 10 central agencies
sweeping powers
- Can now intercept, monitor data on any
computer, not just emails, calls
- Includes Intelligence Bureau,
anti-narcotics and tax agencies
The agencies listed in
the ministry order are the Intelligence Bureau, Narcotics Control Bureau,
Enforcement Directorate, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Directorate of Revenue
Intelligence, CBI, National Investigation Agency, Cabinet Secretariat
(R&AW), Directorate of Signal Intelligence (in Jammu and Kashmir,
North-East and Assam only) and the Delhi Police Commissioner.
"For the first
time, powers of scanning data at rest have been given to various agencies. Earlier,
only data in motion could be intercepted. But now data revived, stored and
generated can also be intercepted as powers of seizure have been given," a
senior bureaucrat explained to NDTV..
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