A complaint against the National Informatics Centre (NIC) highlights that the statutory body does not have any information about the creation of the Aarogya Setu app.?
The Central Information Commission has now asked the body the reason for the same, despite being listed on the app's website.
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Citing the same, CIC issued show-cause notices to several Chief Public Information Officers (CPIOs) in addition to the National e-Governance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NIC.?
The body has asked these entities the reason for not providing a response to an RTI application filed in relation to the?contact tracing app being used in India?in the wake of Coronavirus pandemic.
The RTI was recently highlighted in a report by?LiveLaw.in, a legal cases tracking site. Filed by activist Saurav Das, the complaint has now resulted in a possible penalty to the mentioned entities under section 20 of the RTI Act. The section clauses of ¡°prima facie obstruction of information¡± and an ¡°evasive reply¡± to the RTI application can be imposed on the Centre. The Commission has now asked NIC CPIO Swarup Dutta to explain why such a penalty should not be imposed.
¡°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,¡± Information Commissioner Vanaja N Sarna was quoted as saying in the report.?"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 CIC stated.
The complaint filed by Das points out the failure to provide information on the creation of the Aarogya Setu app by the concerned authorities. The contact tracing app, which has crores of users in the country, does not yet display the information sought under the RTI Act, according to the complaint.
Prior to the complaint, Das had sought details including the original proposal for the app, its approval details, involved individuals, companies and government departments, as well as copies of communications between private people involved in developing the app.
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When Das did not receive a response to the same, he filed a complaint marking the failure of? NIC, NeGD, and MeitY to do the same.
The Commission has now noted that the NeGD CPIO failed to explain why the response to the RTI application was delayed for almost two months, post which it simply informed that the information sought is not related to the department. The Commission has now directed the government bodies included in the complaint.?
According to a WHO report earlier in the year lauded the Indian government's Aarogya Setu App which was downloaded by over 150 million users to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
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