Vigilance: office order with implications on RTI withdrawn

Thiruvananthapuram: The Cabinet decided to withdraw the office order of the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau redistributing work relating to enquires against present and former chief ministers, ministers, all India service officers and members of Assembly and Parliament to top secret  (T) branch of the Bureau.

The notification excluding the T Branch from the purview of right to information will not be withdrawn.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy explained to the media after the Cabinet meeting that the intention of the notification was to prevent disclosure of information relating to informers in vigilance cases. Disclosure of identifies and other details of those who provide valuable information to vigilance police endangered even lives of the informants.  The Vigilance Director had been requesting the government since 2009 to protect them from disclosure under RTI Act.

However, the office order led to a different interpretation of the notification which was being corrected now.  The Director of VACB would be asked to withdraw that.

He said that the Tamil Nadu has fully exempted Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption from the purview of RTI. (However, the State Information Commission of Tamil Nadu has ordered that the exemption would not cover information on corruption cases and this has been upheld by the Tamil Nadu High Court.)

The Chief Minister said that the Election Commission should be giving clearance for drinking water distribution in tankers during summer and distribution of free rice to the poor announced in the Budget. It cannot be argued that water supply could be done only if the area is declared drought-hit.

Mr. Chandy said that the Chief Secretary would be meeting the Chief Election Commissioner with all the documents and he expected the Commission to give clearance by tomorrow.