‘No info on creation of Aarogya Setu app’

New Delhi

The transparency panel has issued a show cause notice to the NIC to explain why a penalty under the Right to Information (RTI) Act not be slapped on it for “prima facie obstruction of information and providing an evasive reply”.

Information Commissioner Vanaja N Sarna, in a terse order, pointed out that the website of the application mentions that the content on it is “owned, updated and maintained” by MyGov and MeitY and directed the CPIO of the ministry to explain why they didnt have the requisite information.

“The CPIO NIC also should explain that when in the website it is mentioned that Aarogya Setu Platform is designed, developed and hosted by National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, then how is it that they do not have any information about creation of the App,” she said.

The Information Commissioner was hearing the plea of one Saurav Das who had sought to know from the government details about the creation of Aarogya Setu application, the law under which it is functioning and whether the government was planning to bring a separate law about the handling of data collected by the application. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) did not provide any information, prompting Das to file a complaint under the RTI Act. He had filed a similar application before the NIC which responded by saying it did not have any information.