The Environment Ministry has been rapped by the Central Information Commission for furnishing “false and misleading” information that there was no study by it on the harmful effects of mobile radiations.
CIC was hearing a case of an RTI applicant on Saturday seeking information based on a media release from World Health Organisation. It said that electromagnetic waves from mobile phones as “possible carcinogens for a kind of brain cancer”.
The RTI applicant had sought information on whether Environment Minister had declared these radio waves as air pollutants, details on steps taken by the Ministry to reduce their impact, and was there any study to measure the harmful biological effects of the waves emanating from cell phone towers on human health.
The Ministry on the other hand informed that it is yet to undertake any such study. But surprisingly, in the course hearing it came to light an inter-ministerial group had already studied the matter and submitted a report in this regard in 2010. The report states of the adverse impact of radiations on human health and come up with recommendations to tackle the issue.
The Commission found that the response to this RTI request is false and misleading. The Ministry further said there is no report that they knew or presumed to have known the content of both the report.
M Sridhar Acharyulu, Information Commissioner said, “The Commission is surprised that the respondent authority knew that the report was submitted by the inter-ministerial group, but officers neither cared to submit the copy of the report nor read it. The Commission could trace the report from the websites of Department of Telecommunication and DDA.”
He directed the Environment Ministry to give reasons for not imposing any restrictions on installation of mobile towers and instead permitting the Delhi Devepment Authority to go ahead with “unrestricted installation” of mobile towers, in spite of recommendations against it.
He further asked the Ministry to furnish whether it has declared the electromagnetic waves as air pollutants, and if not, the reasons for not doing the same.