NRI's in USA allowed RTI excess

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Powerful tool to improve transparency in governance

July 02, 2007

Non-resident Indians (NRIs) living in the US would now be able to exercise the Right to Information (RTI). The Indian embassy in Washington DC has been brought under the purview of the RTI Act, 2005 and a public information officer (PIO) has been appointed.

According to The Pioneer newspaper, this does not mean that the embassy's functions alone would be under the RTI Act purview. If NRIs need any information on Government departments in India, they would be able to file an RTI in the embassy, which in turn would send it to the department in India. The information would be given within 35 days of filing of the application

NRIs have already started exercising their right. 10 applications have been filed with the embassy. One of the first applications is regarding Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Somu Kumar, a resident of Virginia, has filed an application requesting information on Dow Chemicals, headquartered in US. Somu expects to hold Dow Chemicals "accountable" in some through this information. Any Indian citizen with a valid Indian passport can do what Somu has done by just paying a nominal fee of 24 cents. Somu says: "Filing an RTI application is easier than the leave of absence applications one wrote in the primary school."

This success did not come easily. RTI activists from India and America had to campaign for months to bring the Indian embassy under the purview RTI Act. When the repeated appeals to the Indian embassy went unheard, the activists got in touch with Central Information Commission (CIC) in India. Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah issued an order in April bringing all foreign missions under RTI Act. It is only now that the Act is being implemented in America. Washington DC is the first embassy to have declared its PIO and appellate authority also. Rahul Chhabra, counsellor (Press, Information and Culture), at the embassy is the PIO and RS Jassal, deputy chief of mission, is the appellate authority to file the first appeals.

Says Arun Gopalan, a resident of Maryland: "Our repeated attempts since November 2006 to get the Indian embassy officials in Washington DC to implement the RTI Act went unheard and then we were left with no other option but to get in touch with the Central Information Commission directly."

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