RTI activists making governance difficult: Parrikar
PRAKASH KAMAT/THE HINDU, PANAJI | 30 January 2014 14:19 IST
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday lamented that Right to Information activists are making the governance difficult by leaking out half-baked information.
He said the government had to be extremely cautious in its policy decisions like formulating industrial policy of the State as some RTI activists had jumped the gun by leaking bits and pieces of government decisions to the media leading to hurdles in effective decision-making process.
Parrikar was speaking after inaugurating the 16th reverse buyer-seller meet on ‘Dyes & Dye Intermediates, Cosmetics & Toiletries’ of the CHEMEXCIL held in association with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry at Calangute in north coastal Goa.
The Chief Minister spoke of misuse of RTI by some people.
“I am a strong supporter of RTI and the transparency it ushers in governance, but was apprehensive of some people creating hurdles by releasing information obtained from RTI in parts without waiting for full decision-making processes,” he remarked.
Mr. Parrikar promised to come out with a well-thought-out industrial policy for the State and said that he was not worried unduly about the delay in developing the policy.
Mr Parrikar, you make a valid point. Half-baked information is worthless in the process of transparency and good decision-making. So, WHY exactly do the citizens receive half-baked information under an RTI application?? Why does a question like "What other alternatives were considered and what were the reasons assigned to reject each alternative?"elicit a response that states baldly: "Not Applicable". Have you considered Mr Parrikar, that the citizens ONLY have access to these half-baked, half-assed obfuscations and half-truths. I am glad you have freshly discovered that they hinder proper consideration and understanding.Perhaps now you will arrive at another fresh epiphany - these half-way scraps of information are all that citizens are allowed access to. In the process of good governance, you would remember 'of the people, for the people, by the people' is the defining principle. And you would make available clear proposals, with FULL information for stake-holder consideration and 80% stakeholder agreement. Simple equation, Mr Chief Minister - if you offer up full transparency, there won't be any half-baked information to hinder you.