The organizations and campaigners working for the implementation and protection of the right to information law have shown concern over the classification of information along with the change in government.
A team led by the National Federation for RTI reached the National Information Commission and drew the attention of the Chief Commissioner and Commissioners. On December 27, a committee on information categorization led by the Chief Secretary of the government had decided to keep 87 types of information confidential, which the RTI campaigners argued, would foil RTI Act, 2064, and Regulation, 2065.
The Chief Secretary-led committee had categorized 87 policy-level decisions under five sections and decided to keep these out of public access. The team was made aware of the NIC.
Executive Chief of Freedom Forum and former Chair of the Federation of Nepali Journalists Taranath Dahal said he had informed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal about the categorization of information. PM Dahal was made aware that information was categorized without information from the political leadership. In response, PM Dahal said the government was ready to discuss with the campaigners.
On the occasion, Chief Information Commissioner Mahendra Man Gurung said the Commission would decide after collecting thorough details on it.
Earlier, the government led by Dr. Baburam Bhattarai had also categorized the information, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court order.
Federation Chair Umid Bagchand observed that the process of information categorization would be studied more, and concrete initiatives were taken for the protection of citizens’ right to information provided by the constitution.
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