COURTESY HT OCT 29
RTI reply on Aarogya Setu app evokes CIC ire
Deeksha Bhardwaj
letters@hindustantimes.com
New Delhi : The Central Information Commission(CIC) has asked three government officials to explain an evasive RTI (Right To Information) response over the creation of the Aarogya Setu app, calling it “extremely preposterous”.
The RTI application, filed by Saurav Das, sought information on the creation of the contact tracing application in light of privacy concerns around it. Officials from the National Informatics Centre (NIC), National e-Governance Division, and Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) declined to comment on the questions raised by Das, prompting him to file an appeal with CIC. Data privacy activists claim that the app collects information and stores it.
“The CPIO (central public information officer), NIC’s submissions that the entire file related to creation of the App is not with NIC is understandable, but the same submissions if accepted from MeitY, NeGD and NIC in toto, then it becomes more relevant to now find out how an app was created and there is no information with any of the relevant public authorities,” the CIC said in its order dated October 26.
It directed NIC, which manages the creation and maintenance of the government’s websites, to explain how the website for the app has a gov.in extension if the ministry has no information about it.
“The Commission observed that none of the CPIOs provided any information. Therefore, the Commission directs the CPIO, NIC to explain this matter in writing as to how the website https://aarogyasetu.gov.in/ was created with the domain name gov.in, if they do not have any information about it,” the CIC said. “None of the CPIOs were able to explain anything regarding who created the App, where are the files, and the same is extremely preposterous,” the order added.
MeitY officials said that the government will comply with the CIC’s orders.
“As per the orders, of the CIC, CPIOs of MeitY, NeGD and NIC have been directed to appear on 24th November 2020. MeitY is taking necessary steps to comply with the orders of the CIC,” MeitY said in a statement.
The statement added that the app was developed in record time to combat the prevailing Covid-19 outbreak, and its source code and the names of those associated with developing the app are in the open domain.
“It is clarified that there should be no doubt with regard to the Aarogya Setu app that was launched by Government of India in public private partnership mode to bring people of India together in its fight against COVID19,” the ministry said.