Need to check RTI misuse, says Anna

Social activist Anna Hazare, a key advocate of the Right to Information Act, said on Saturday that some changes are needed in the Act as some people were making a “business” out of it. He also said that he has conveyed this to the government.

Hazare was responding to PM Manmohan Singh’s remarks on Friday that the RTI Act needed a critical relook “as it was adversely affecting deliberative processes in the government”.

Hazare said he believed that the government should be transparent, for which it is necessary that andar ki baatein should come out into public domain. “But some people have made it their business. They are demanding information that they don’t need and are using it to blackmail people,” he said.

Hazare said that he has conveyed to the government some measures that should be adopted to keep miscreants at bay.

“Repeated demand for information also hampers the government’s working,” he said. “Some people demand 4,000-5,000 copies and file repeated RTIs. Kuch brake lagana chahiye,” Hazare said.