Governor brings ACB back under RTI Act on last day of Prez rule





Every bit of information related to inquiries and investigations made by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), even in high-profile cases involving top officials and political leaders, will remain in public domain.

Governor C Vidyasagar Rao directed the government to withdraw the notification exempting the ACB from provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act on Thursday , the last day of President's rule in the state. An official attached to the Raj Bhavan said a notification withdrawing President's rule will be issued on Friday , coinciding with Devendra Fadnavis taking over as the state's first BJP chief minister. The decision to exclude the ACB from the RTI Act was taken by the Con gress-NCP government led by Prithviraj Chavan on September 6, 2014.

"The governor has taken the decision to withdraw the notification after considering representations from various RTI activists and after taking cognizance of newspaper reports which reflected the view that the notification was in violation of the RTI Act," said a press release issued by the Raj Bhavan. Interestingly , organisations such as the Intelligence Bureau (IB), CBI, and CID do not come under the purview of RTI. Several RTI activists had written to the governor, calling the order illegal. After Thursday's order, Rao received gushing praise. "My salute to the governor! I think he and his advisors have shown extraordinary wisdom," said former central information commissioner and RTI activist Shailesh Gandhi.

Activists Jitendra Ghadge, Ketan Tirodkar and Chetan Kothari were also happy with the order. Activist Anil Galgali pointed out that the earlier government's order was perhaps intended to keep under wraps information on the many corruption cases filed against Congress and NCP leaders.