Cop RTIs made cumbersome

The Asian Age: Mumbai: Wednesday, July 30, 2014.

A change made by the Mumbai Police in the procedure for disseminating information pertaining to all police stations, under the Right To Information (RTI) Act, has resulted in a 38-fold increase in court fees and probably as many days to file a single RTI application.

Earlier, ACP, co-ordination, whose office is at the Mumbai Police Commissioner’s headquarters, used to receive applications on information related to all police stations. He had to ensure that a copy of the application reached all stations. This way the applicant paid only `10 as court fee stamp for an application.

The information from various stations was then consolidated at the five regional offices headed. The applicant was expected to pick up the information from these offices. However, since last year the Mumbai Police changed the procedure and now the power to forward an RTI application rests with 39 divisional ACPs.

This means that to make a single RTI application pertaining to all police stations the applicant has to spend Rs 390 as court fees for 39 applications. He/she will also have to go to the 39 offices all over the city to submit the applications, and later to receive them.

Responding to the change in procedure, a senior state information commission official, requesting anonymity, said, “The Mumbai police is well within its rights to change the procedure, but I do see that it has made it very difficult for an applicant to get the information. If I receive a complaint, I shall take it up with the police commissioner.”

When contacted for a comment, state information commissioner Ajitkumar Jain said he would comment on the issue only after formally examining the order or a complaint against it.