Bring back anti corruption bureau under RTI, activist appeals to guv

PUNE: RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar has appealed to the governor of Maharashtra Chennamaneni Vidyasagar Rao to set aside the notification of the outgoing state government, which exempts the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) from the RTI Act of 2005, in a letter on Tuesday.
Kumbhar was following up cases with the ACB under the RTI Act and was denied information based on the notification issued by the additional chief secretary (general administration department) P S Meena under sub-section 4 of section 24 (Act not applicable to certain departments) of the RTI Act of September 6.
Kumbhar has alleged that the ACB has been intentionally kept out of the RTI ambit to deprive citizens from obtaining information on corruption cases. He said that the notification is not available on the circulars posted on the state government website and has appealed to the governor to set aside the notification in the larger public interest.
In addition, Vivek Velankar, president of the Sajag Nagrik Manch has filed a complaint against the state government with the state's chief information commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad under section 18 (power of the information commission to inquire into a complaint) of the RTI Act.
Quoting section 24 of the Act, Velankar in his complaint pointed out that intelligence and security agencies can be exempted under the Act but not ACB. Terming the notification illegal, he said it was contrary to the provisions of the Act as the ACB was not a security agency.
Justifying the notification, ACB officials on condition of anonymity, said that there were several instances of the accused arrested in bribery and disproportionate assets cases misusing the RTI Act to seek information and using it as their defence to get out of court cases.
ACB officials said, "The details of the action taken by the ACB against public servants are posted on its official website so there is no need to use the RTI Act to seek information."
The state government officials, requesting anonymity, also said that a proposal to exempt ACB was taken following complaints that the Act was being misused by many of the accused arrested in criminal cases.