Amongst one of the ongoing research which our team is currently engaged in, it has emerged that there are some departments in ONGC, due to whose efforts, honesty is still alive and kicking in ONGC. Many believe that dishonesty has reached levels of an epidemic. In ONGC there are departments whose black deeds need to be exposed in front of the public. After all, this is a company where the stakeholders are the general public.
As we all know RTI Act was brought in to seek correct information and reveal the misdeeds of some departments of state agencies. The way ONGC is fragrantly defying the RTI Act in order to hide its secrets is not only condemnable but calls for strict action by the controlling agencies. For personal interests alone, Section 8(1) D of RTI is being used to take shelter and not share information of vital public importance. It is ridiculous that subjects which should be in the public domain is being shielded by this section. The Corporate Communication section’s work is religated to mere propaganda. Exchanging vital information which is the duty of the department is constantly being denied on the grounds that the information is part of Section 8(1) D of RTI and cannot be given. It’s strange, ONGC’s Corporate Communication has in past been providing such information from time to time whenever it require and demanded in RTI, who headed the Corp Comm department shared all the information during their tenure.
After all, what are the reasons due to which the information after the tenure of the year 2020 is being hidden from the applicant or is being covered up by the section of RTI Act? Efforts are being made to save which officers? Or is there a fear that honest ministers will not take time to put the dishonest ones behind bars if corruption is exposed when information is made available?
RTI Act was brought in to bring transparency and share maximum information. The MoP&NG Minister may have changed, however, the new minister is very transparent and open in his conduct. But some departments of ONGC are trying to cover up things. This makes most people believe that something may not be completely above board in ONGC.