The Times of India: Hyderabad: Sunday, July 20, 2014.
In a curious
case of complete ignorance of rules, hundreds of RTI applicants are
unnecessarily being forced to cough up exorbitant amounts of money by clueless
Public Information Officers (PIOs) for furnishing information.
Surprisingly,
this money is often collected in violation of Section 7 (6) of the RTI Act,
which categorically states that information (that run into a few hundred or
even thousand pages) should be provided free of charge, if it's not furnished
within the official time limit of 30 days. But despite the clause, dozens of
instances have now come to light wherein PIOs have been found to have demanded
money from applicants, the lapse of the 30-day period notwithstanding.
This has
resulted in a flood of complaints from RTI applicants, both from Andhra Pradesh
and Telangana, before the State Information Commission (SIC), prompting the
latter to direct several PIOs to refund the excess fee that runs into a huge
sum if calculated with interest.
For instance,
in a recent appeal case decided by state information commissioner L Tantiya
Kumar, the PIO of Kakatiya University was asked to refund Rs 3,872 to G
Dakshinamurthy, after the latter was made to pay the amount for 1,936 pages
worth of information. "I filed the RTI on September 4, 2013, seeking
records of promotion papers of six associate professors. I was supplied the
information in 1,936 pages on 11 October, 2013, over a month later," said
Dakshinamurthy, convenor for Protection of Values in Educational Field, an NGO.
Though Dakshinamurthy was aware that this information was free, he paid the sum
but later fought it out before the SIC.
But that his
isn't an isolated case is evident from the vast number of similar cases
uploaded on the SIC website: www.apic.gov.in. Take for instance the plight of
Adapa Bheemaraju, a resident of Pithapuram mandal, East Godavari. On May 4,
2011, the RTI applicant sought measurement books from the East Godavari
irrigation department and was furnished the information on 30 June, 2011. But
only after he paid Rs 1,085 for it. Information commissioner C Madhukar Raj has
now asked the concerned PIO to refund the amount with interest.
"If one
takes into account PIOs across the two states, such cases of excess collection
of money will run into thousands every month. RTI applicants should refuse to
pay this illegal sum," said Hyderabad-based RTI activist, Rakesh Dubbudu,
convenor of the United Forum for RTI Campaign, Telangana. Rakesh maintains that
this harassment is the result of the PIOs' sheer ignorance.
While Section
7 (6) of the RTI Act categorically states that information (that run into a few
hundred or even thousand pages) should be provided free of charge if furnished
after the time limit of 30 days, ignorant PIOs have been collecting huge sums
of money from applicants.
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