Private firms not exempted under Right to Information Act
By Sriparna   |   Tuesday, 27 February 2007, 18:30 IST   |    1 Comments
Printer Print Email Email
New Delhi: India's private sector companies are no more exempted by the Right to information act. M.M. Ansari, information commissioner at the Central Information Commission that oversees the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, told a national daily that as long as these companies reported to a regulator or a government department, they were within the purview of the law. The commission said the companies would not have to appoint information officers to deal with right-to-information demands the way government entities do. Applicants will route their requests through the relevant agency. He said that information on telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile telephony firm, could be accessed through the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India; for banks through the Reserve Bank of India; and on brokerages and foreign investors active in stock markets from the Securities and Exchange Board of India. "Applicants have every right to seek information on a private company even though it is in the private sector, if it reports to a government body," said Ansari, citing sections of the Act that made this possible. Only applications that served public interest would be dealt with, not those that sought to erode a company's competitive position, he adds. The message: you can ask a cola company for details on how much water it used and where the water came from, but not the formula of its fizzy drink. If there is any difference of opinion on what constitutes public interest and what doesn't, the commission will intercede and decide.

siliconindia