E-Paper
Government proposes RTI restrictions on SHANTI Bill
The SHANTI Bill allows private nuclear energy involvement but restricts sharing of "restricted" info under RTI, raising transparency and public safety concerns.
New Delhi: The Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill that aims to allow private sector in nuclear energy debars sharing of any information declared as “restricted” by the Central government under the watershed Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The proposed law under section 39 prevents sharing of any information that is “detrimental to national security or public interest” and provides for specifics of the restricted information.
The sub-sections say restricted information includes location, quality and quantity of prescribed substance and transactions for their acquisition, anything about design and operation of the nuclear power plant, research and technological work on materials and processing.
It also prevents sharing of “photograph, plan or model” of the nuclear power plant and related to any process in the plant.
In addition to it, the sub-section also provides that “submissions made available to the (Atomic Energy) Board or other regulatory bodies during the course of their work and declared as strategic, sensitive or confidential for business purpose by the application” would be restricted.
The proposed bill also gives powers to the Central government to “prohibit” publication of any information related to nuclear power through a notification. It also says that any information declared “restricted” or “prohibited” under the law cannot be disclosed under the Right to Information Act.
With this, the Central government has imposed restriction on the RTI use without amending the transparency act. In the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, the government had restricted sharing of personal information of any personal citing privacy regulations.
During discussion on the bill in the lower house, Supriya Sule (NCP-SP) asked the government why restrictions on the RTI Act has been imposed through the SHANTI Bill. “When private players are being allowed where does the question of national security come,” she said during discussion on the proposed law.
Anjali Bhardwaj, RTI activist, said section 39 will prevent public scrutiny in this critical sector and adversely impact public safety. “The RTI Act already has adequate safeguards to exempt sensitive information, including national security. There was no need to override the transparency law,” she said.
