Committed to furnish all information for Aarogya Setu: Govt after RTI body’s notice
The Centre said on Thursday it is committed to furnish all the information sought under the RTI Act over the Aarogya Setu contact tracing application and comply with the directions of Central Information Commission.
The Centre said on Thursday it is committed to furnish all the information sought under the RTI Act over the c contact tracing application and comply with the directions of Central Information Commission, which had issued a notice asking the government to explain the evasive response over the app’s creation.
Officials said that the Union ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) has taken the lapses made in providing information on Aarogya Setu app, which has data of millions of users, very strictly. They said the ministry has issued directions to initiate suitable action against the officers responsible for this. It has also directed National Informatics Centre (NIC) and National E-Governance Division (NeGD) to take suitable action against officers dealing with the RTI query in their organisations as well.
Also read | Govt pulled up by RTI body over evasive reply on Aarogya Setu. It clarifies
The ministry, they said, is committed to furnish all the information sought under the RTI Act to the applicant and comply with CIC’s directions. The commission had called the government’s response “extremely preposterous”.
The RTI application, filed by Saurav Das, had sought information about the creation of the application in light of privacy concerns around it. Government officials from NIC and NeGD and MeitY declined to comment on the question raised by Das, prompting him to file an appeal with the CIC. The application has been particularly contentious as news reports and data privacy activists have alleged that the app collects information and stores it.
Also read | Ministry has no information on who created Aarogya Setu, RTI body issues showcause notice
“The CPIO (central public information officer), NIC’s submissions that the entire file related to creation of the App is not with NIC is understandable, but the same submissions if accepted from MeITY, NeGD and NIC in toto, then it becomes more relevant to now find out how an App was created and there is no information with any of the relevant public authorities,” the CIC said in its order dated October 26.
