Interacting with reporters at a meet-the-press programme organized by the Press Assocaition, Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Wajahat Habibullah said that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has to its credit piloting two revolutionary laws the RTI and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) during its five-year tenure. However, unlike the NREGS, the CIC believes the government was making no efforts to publicize the RTI Act. The CIC admitted that in the countryside or even the educated class in big cities was not aware about their rights under the RTI.

Even though the Section 25 of the Act makes it mandatory for all governments to give full publicity to the Act, the CIC noted that bureaucracy was still harbouring the colonial mindset. 'Being the member of bureaucracy myself, our officers are trained to withhold information as long as forced to part with. Even then they hide information behind verbal jugglery,' he added.

Habibullah also disclosed that he was looking into making country's war histories public. 'I am hearing an appeal filed by noted journalist Kuldeep Nayyar to make open the Hinderson Brooks report of 1962 India-China war,' he said. Defence Ministry has agreed to share the report with the CIC in order to let him decide whether it can be made public.

On the latest controversy of making mandatory for the Supreme Court judges to disclose assets, the CIC said the matter was sub-judice. In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court has appealed before Delhi High Court against the CIC order asking judges to make public their assets as they are holding constitutional offices.

Habibullah said while he believes that judges should make their assets public, controversy was only who could be the custodian of this information whether the Registrar or the Chief Justice. He said the MPs also do come under the purview of the Act.

Agreeing that some scrupulous elements were misusing the RTI law, the CIC expressed the need to being a law to protect individual privacy. He said a law to protect privacy was need of hour; as such laws do exist in the US as well as in the UK. He said like the right to information, protecting privacy was also a basic democratic right.

The CIC also mentioned that under Section 1 (A) of the Act, government was bound to computerize all records and made them readily available to public without their askance. He said the government has embarked on a mega plan of e-governance at a cost of Rs. 23,000 crore.

On the controversy with the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), the CIC said there was no harm in disclosing the cut-off marks. He said the RTI law has now gone beyond the government and the time was ripe to bring the multi-national companies and other private bodies also under the law.

He said that efforts were going on to bring Right to Information Act (RTI) of Jammu and Kashmir at par with the Central law. He said the J&K RTI Act needs total restructuring as its present form was highly inadequate to address information quotient. 'It mentions to seek information from the head of department, but does not speak of a mechanism of appeals if he refused information,' said the CIC, counting the lacunas in the sate law.(Ends)