The Aam Aadmi Party, which aggressively fought for the Right to Information (RTI) Act, has now started shielding itself from providing information under the same Act on issues concerning its own Government in the national Capital. From employment to appointments, the AAP administration has been dodging questions under the RTI Act. First, the Government had refused to provide information about the new appointments it had made after taking over in Delhi. Now, the Government has categorically stated that it has no record about the requests which had been made for appointments with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
In an RTI application, Rohit Kumar of Bihta district in Patna had sought information on how many official requests for appointments had been received by Kejriwal after taking over as the Chief Minister of Delhi. It had also sought details about the individuals who had made these official requests for appointments with the Chief Minister.
In his reply, the AAP Government’s deputy secretary said that no record on the list of requests of appointments had been maintained. Generally, the appointments of the Chief Minister are made by AAP activist Ashwati Murlidharan, who was appointed as the Joint Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office.
On another question seeking information about the requests either received by Kejriwal or his office and the one’s which were considered for the same, the Government said, “Since no list of request is maintained, it is not possible to inform which of these requests were granted.” About the documents mentioning criteria for granting appointment with the CM, the Government said there were no such criteria available on record.