Who made the Aarogya Setu app? NIC called for “evasive response”

The Central Information Commission on Tuesday asked the National Computer Science Center (NIC) to explain why, despite its name, it does not have any information on the creation of the Aarogya Setu app on the app’s website. The legal body also issued notifications to various Chief Public Information Officers (CPIOs) as well as the National E-Governance Department (NeGD), the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the NIC for not providing an evasive response One RTI application was related to the contact tracking app that has many users.

In response to a complaint by activist Saurav Das against the NIC, the commission asked the NIC CPIO Swarup Dutta to explain why the center should not be penalized under Section 20 of the RTI Act for obstructing information at first sight. and to give an “evasive answer” to the RTI request submitted by the complainant, as originally reported from LiveLaw.in, a legal case prosecution website.

“The Commission instructs the CPIO, NIC to clarify this matter in writing as the website https://aarogyasetu.gov.in/ was created with the domain name gov.in if they have no information about it.” Information Commissioner Vanaja N Sarna said in this order.

The complaint filed by Das found that NIC, NeGD and MeitY had not provided any information on the creation of the Aarogya Setu app. The complainant had searched for details, including the origin of the proposal for the app and its approval details, the companies, individuals and government departments involved, and copies of communications between private individuals who were involved in the development of the app.

In addition to giving instructions to the government agencies involved in the complaint, the commission found in the decision that the CPIO could not explain to the NeGD why it delayed responding to the RTI application by nearly two months and that it was also notified that the information sought is not related to the department.

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