The Report of the National Commission on Review of the Working of the Constitution, the selected excerpts of which were read in the Consultation, had inter alia observed,
" The right to information can't be hedged by so many restrictions as to render it meaningless. The idea is not as it is often supposed by the supporters of the proposal that people at the district level or village level would know what has been allocated for their respective territories and how it is being spent. The concept is much broader and much richer. How much should a country spend on its defense preparedness? What kind of weapons it ought to have and why? If democracy has to have any meaning in the modern context, question like this kind can't be reserved exclusively for the experts to discuss and decide."
Ms.Sunita Patnaik of CYSD observed that there is no pint in exempting such information from disclosure as relating to papers exchanged between the Governor and State Government or confidential correspondence between the Centre and State, as every citizen has a right to know how such constitutional authorities are working or not working as per the mandates of the Constitution.
Mrs. Bilasini Patnaik, Advocate had observed that except the clearly specified areas of national security, sovereignty, integrity and international relations, there should not be any thing kept secret from the citizens.
It is recommended that the provision on restrictions on Right to Information be brought in consonance with the reasonable restrictions as described under Article 19 (2) and of the Constitution and therefore the additional grounds like 'causing communal and caste disharmony' be deleted from the Clause 5a. Moreover, the 2nd Para of Clause 5b dealing with matters relating to Governor and Centre-State Relations be completely deleted.
Another recommendation is that like the Freedom of Information Bill 2000, the Orissa RTI Draft Bill should contain a Schedule of Organisations and Authorities, to whom the citizens won't have any right to information at all. As Mr.Manmohan Praharaj, IPS IG Orissa Police observed, these exempted irganisations shall be managed by the personnel who have security clearance. Otherwise, if we don't clearly list out such agencies, and only mention this or that ground for withholding the official information, there is then every chance of the Govt officials to tend, as they do, to withhold any and every information, on this or that flimsy ground, just to harass the gullible public.