The Central Information Commission (CIC) on Tuesday issued show-cause notices to the Chief Public Information Officers (CPIOs), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), National Informatics Centre (NIC), and National e-Governance Division (NeGD) for not providing an evasive response to an RTI application related to Aarogya Setu App.
According to a report by Live Law, the CIC has asked National Informatics Centre (NIC) to explain that why it does not have any information about the creation of the Aarogya Setu app despite having its name on the app's website.
As per the report, while taking action in response to a complaint filed by activist Saurav Das against the NIC, MeitY, and NeGD, the Commission asked NIC to explain why a penalty under section 20 of the RTI Act should not be imposed on the Centre for “prima facie obstruction of information” and giving an “evasive reply” to the RTI application submitted by the complainant.
“The Commission directs the CPIO, NIC to explain this matter in writing as to how the website https://aarogyasetu.gov.in/ was created with the domain name gov.in, if they do not have any information about it,” Information Commissioner Vanaja N Sarna said in the order.
Activist Saurav Das has filed a complaint in which he stated that NIC, NeGD, and MeitY had failed to provide information about the creation of the Aarogya Setu app. Das had sought details including the origin of the proposal for the app as well as its approval details, companies involved, individuals, and government departments included.
However, this didn't go down too well with social media users who slammed the Central government for not having any information about the creation of the Aarogya Setu app.
One user said: "What???? Duffers or Arrogant people are posted to reply to RTI queries." While another user said: “May be in Genesis chapter God created it?”
Here’s what netizens had to say:
