Did Arun Jaitley Know About Notes Ban? Can't Disclose Says His Ministry

[Kool_SRG]

New Delhi: Who all were involved in taking the decision to ban higher denomination currency in November last year is a question which has got no response from the authorities responsible including the Prime Minister's office and the Reserve Bank of India. The Finance Minister is the latest to deny the information. But unlike the PMO and RBI, the Finance Ministry in its response to a query under the Right To Information Act acknowledges the availability of the records but denies disclosing it citing concerns about national security.

The ministry's response cities exemption clause of section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act to deny the information which justifies withholding information "disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence".

The reply however does not explain information would attract the section.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on November 8 announced the banning of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in an attempt to curb black money and counterfeiting of currency. But the move, which took out 86% per cent of the total currency in circulation, led to a short-lived but a massive cash crunch. This followed vehement criticism from a united opposition, but the Modi government has belittled the opinions of critics with the recently released growth rate (GDP) of 7%.

To an earlier query asking if the Finance Minister and the Chief Economic Advisor were consulted, the PMO and the RBI had said the announcement does not come under the definition of "information" under the RTI Act.

The definition of "information" under the Act refers to "any material in any form" under the control of a public authority.

According to procedure, a first appeal can be filed with the Ministry concerned which is to be handled by a senior official. If it is unsuccessful, the matter escalates to the Central Information Commission, the top adjudicating body on the RTI Act.

The RTI Act has specific provision which allows records attracting its exemption clauses to be disclosed "if public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests".

"The clause of public interest would apply where exemption clause applies on the information sought by an applicant. In the present case, the information sought does not attract any exemption clause," former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi told the Press Trust of India.

The law is very clear: when a public authority rejects to disclose information it must give clear reasons as to how the exemption clause would apply in the given case. On the responses of the PMO and the RBI, former Chief Information Commissioner A N Tiwari said that their replies are wrong as the applicant had sought to know a fact which would be part of records hence an "information" under

the RTI Act.

The queues outside ATMs slowly reduced and then vanished as new 500 and 2000 rupee notes replaced the scrapped notes. Demonetisation has also become on of the key election issue and has found mention in most of PM Modi's election rally speeches.

[JANASENA]

Marriage over why media vayinching drums now 

[Kool_SRG]

23 minutes ago, JANASENA said:

Marriage over why media vayinching drums now 

Media kaadu RTI adigaaru daaniki evam annaru the applicant can ask for it....Nuvvu article chadavaledani ardham ayyindi 

[Bhai]

7 minutes ago, Kool_SRG said:

Media kaadu RTI adigaaru daaniki evam annaru the applicant can ask for it....Nuvvu article chadavaledani ardham ayyindi 

Ey anti