The CIC criticized MEITY and NIC for “prima facie obstructing information and providing an evasive response.” Noting that none of the CPIOs could answer who created the app, Information Commissioner Vanaja N Sarna said that MEITY and NIC’s responses were “extremely absurd.”
NIC developed Aarogya Setu, volunteers collaborated in: Government
Plaintiff Saurav Das filed an RTI on who created the app and where the files are.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) issued a statement to say that according to the orders of the CIC, the MEITY CPIOs, National Division of Electronic Governance (NeGD) and NIC must appear on November 24. MEITY is taking the necessary steps to comply with CIC’s orders. He clarified that “there should be no question regarding the Aarogya Setu app and its role in helping to contain the Covid-19 pandemic in India.” He stated that the Aarogya Setu application has been developed by NIC in collaboration with volunteers from industry and academia and that all details and documents, including the privacy policy and data access and knowledge sharing protocols issued on 11 May, have been uploaded to the Aarogya Setu portal. aarogyasetu.gov.in.
The RTI applicant had tried to learn details from the government about the creation of the Aarogya Setu app, the law under which it is operating, and whether the government planned to enact separate legislation on the handling of data collected by the app. Saurav Das approached the CIC when he was unable to obtain any information from the authorities.
The CIC in its interim order of October 26 observed that “it is not possible that there is no file movement while this App is being created, a citizen cannot go around in circles to find out the custodian.” “The CPIO, the NIC submissions that all the file related to the creation of the application is not with NIC is understandable, but the same submissions if accepted from MEITY, NeGD and NIC in full, it becomes more relevant now to discover how was an application created ”, says the order.
“The NIC CPIO should explain that when the website mentions that Aarogya Setu Platform is designed, developed and hosted by the National Center for Informatics, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, then how come they don’t have any information on creation? of the application, ”said the information commissioner.
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