New Delhi (ILNS): Following the order of the Central Information Commission (CIC), slapping show-cause notices on CPIOs regarding the issue of obstructing information on an RTI application seeking information on the creation of the Aarogya Setu App, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has finally come out with a clarification, saying it was a government initiative, built on a public-private partnership.
The ministry statement said:
“The names of all those associated with the development of the App and management of the App ecosystem at various stages was shared when the code was released in Open/Public Domain and the same was shared widely in media also.”
The order was passed by Information Commissioner Vanaja N. Sarna on an RTI application filed by Saurav Das, seeking a true copy of the entire file related to the creation of the Aarogya Setu App including its origin, companies, file notings, minutes of the meetings held while creating the app, law under which the app was created and other related information.
The ministry clarified: “The Aarogya Setu App was developed in a record time of around 21 days, to respond to the exigencies of the Pandemic with Lockdown restrictions only for the objective of building a Made in India Contact Tracing App with the best of Indian minds from Industry, Academia and Government, working round the clock to build a robust, scalable and secure App.
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“Names of people associated with the development of the app are available on https://github.com/nic-delhi/AarogyaSetu_Android/blob/master/Contributors.md link.”
The ministry further appreciated the use of the Aaroya Setu App, stating that there should be no doubt with regard to the Aarogya Setu App and its role in helping contain COVID19 Pandemic in India.
-India Legal Bureau