Aarogya Setu row: Show cause notice dropped after officials explain what caused ‘no information’ fiasco

The Central Public Information Officers of the ministry of electronics and information technology who apparently had said that there was no information on who created the Aarogya Setu app ha apologised for the mistake and said that it happened as information is scattered in different government departments. Following this, the Central Information commission has dropped the show cause notices it issued to the officers.

There was no malafide intent on part of the CPIOs, the CIC has noted and, therefore, hasn’t imposed any penalty.

The complaint was filed by one Saurav Das who claimed to have approached the NIC, National E-Governance Division (NeGD) and the ministry of electronics and information technology seeking to know about the creation of the application, which has been downloaded by millions of Indians during lockdown.

“The Commission directs the CPIO, NIC to explain this matter in writing as to how the website https://aarogyasetu.gov.in/ was created with the domain name gov.in, if they do not have any information about it,” Information Commissioner Vanaja N Sarna had ordered.

The Centre intervened and clarified that the app was developed by the government in collaboration with private enterprises.