In another try at taming the Right to Information Act, the government recently recommended in a notification that RTI applicants limit their application to only one subject and also restrict their query to just two-fifty words.

The citizens who enquire for information under the RTI act could also be charged the amount incurred by the public authority if equipment for gathering and providing information is required to be hired.

The suggested rules have been made by the department of personnel and training (DoPT) and they are inviting public comments till 27th December this year. The rules were made following a Delhi High Court order rejecting the Central Information Commission's abilities to draft rules on the RTI.

The DoPT move has created concerns among activists who feel that the rules will restrict the empowering of the RTI legislation. They feel it is a major policy move and not at all a pro-RTI step.

It is absolutely against the RTI as it restricts the citizens' fundamental right of getting information and also has the potential to be misused by public information officers since they have immense discretion to decide what constitutes a one subject matter and what doesn't.