Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 25 Keralam Health and Devaswom Minister K Muraleedharan on Sunday justified the government’s move to exempt two sections of the state Vigilance department from the RTI Act, saying that it was done to prevent investigation from being hampered due to certain disclosures made to the media.
Muraleedharan assured that largely the people’s right to seek information about the functioning of the department would remain unaffected as the government does not intend to hide anything.
The minister, while speaking to reporters, also rejected allegations that the move was aimed at protecting any prominent persons, including political leaders and elected representatives, as claimed by Leader of Opposition in the state assembly and former CM Pinarayi Vijayan a day ago.
“There is no need to rescue anyone as no prominent person was in need of any protection from corruption allegations. No such person is involved in any such matter. There were instances of information coming out in the media which were hampering investigations and therefore, some restrictions were imposed,” he explained.
“The government will not take a stand to hide important documents under the Right to Information Act. The government will not hide anything from the public. So, there is no need for any concern,” he added.
Muraleedharan said that it was the Congress which had brought the RTI Act, but the transparency law was “diluted” by the BJP.
Vijayan on Saturday had accused the Congress-led UDF government of “suppressing transparency and protecting the corrupt” by exempting two sections of the state Vigilance department from the RTI Act.
He had alleged that the move was intended to conceal files relating to corruption allegations against political leaders and elected representatives.
He had claimed that the notification came after Vigilance records concerning the chief minister VD Satheesan had surfaced, and the government was trying to protect influential people accused of corruption.
He was referring to the notification issued by the state government recently bringing the T1 and T2 sections of the VACB directorate under the exemption granted to intelligence and security organisations under Section 24(4) of the RTI Act, 2005.
The state government had earlier exempted eight state intelligence and security organisations from the law in 2006.
State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala had defended the decision, saying confidentiality was essential for Vigilance investigations and functioning.
He had also claimed that the T sections did not, in reality, fall under the purview of the RTI Act.
(PTI News)
