NIC, IT Ministry Get CIC Notice After Saying They Don't Have Info On Aarogya Setu's Creation

UPDATE: The govt has issued a clarification saying “the Aarogya Setu App is a product of Government of India built in collaboration with the best of the minds of Industry & Academia”.

The Central Information Commission issued show-cause notices to Central Public Information Officers at the National Informatics Centre, the National E-governance Division and the Ministry of Electronics & Informational Technology for “evasive” replies to an RTI application seeking information on the creation of the Aarogya Setu app, LiveLaw reported.

A complaint filed by Saurav Das said that the NIC, the NeGD and MeitY had not provided information on the process of creating the Aarogya Setu app, files relating to its creation, who gave inputs on the app’s creation and audit measures to check for misuse of personal data of users.

The app was rolled out by the Indian government during the coronavirus pandemic to track the real-time movements of citizens to determine if they have been in the proximity of COVID-19  patients.

Das received an RTI response from NIC which said that it did not hold information on the app’s creation. NIC is credited as developer on the app.

NeGD responded to the RTI saying it that the information sought was not related to its division.

MeitY’s Central Public Information Officer said it couldn’t give a plausible explanation for where the information on creation of the app could be accessed.

The ministry also said it could not explain how the app was created and that it had no clue about its origin, the LiveLaw report said. The ministry could only say that the creation of Aarogya Setu involved inputs from NITI Ayog.

The app’s website says: “Aarogya Setu Platform is designed, developed and hosted by National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India.”

CIC called the responses “extremely preposterous” and asked the authorities to explain why penalty under Section 20 of the RTI act should not imposed on them for obstruction of information.

The CIC has directed the CPIOs to appear before it on November 24 to respond to the notice.

Following, widespread media coverage of the order and Opposition criticism, the government released a statement in which it said the app had been developed by the NIC “in collaboration with volunteers from Industry and Academia”.

The IT ministry also shared the link to list of contributors associated with the development and management of the app at various stages.

The names from the government in this list include Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog; Ajay Sawhney, Secretary - Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology; Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, NIC; RS Mani, DDG, NIC; Abhishek Singh, MyGov CEO; Seema Khanna; Director, Medical Education & Research, Govt of Maharashtra.