Times
of India: Agra: Sunday, 26 October 2014.
In a bid to
promote RTI culture in the city, the state information commissioner, Haider
Abbas, met officials from the district administration to discuss plans for
popularizing the culture of filing RTI queries here. The district
administration will soon hold workshops to educate people from various walks of
life about the nuances of filing an RTI query and its legal nitty-gritty's.
This move to
review the RTI culture in the city comes after the Madras high court recently
ruled that the applicant need to cite the reason for filing an application
under RTI. According to activists, this ruling violates Section 6(2) of RTI
Act, which says an applicant making request for information "shall
not" be required to give any reason for requesting the information.
Speaking
about the meeting, ADM Sanjay Chauhan, said, "There were discussions and
we will start with some programs after a fortnight. So far it has been
discussed that there will be training of staff in three different phases, a
deep inquiry into the penalty cases, training of media and activists so that
common people know the practical and legal aspects of RTI."
The
commissioner said it was very important to implement Section (4) of RTI 2005
Act, which encourages maximum disbursement of information online. "This
will help in promoting RTI in the right spirit," said Abbas.
He discussed
some important aspects of filing an RTI. "While filing the RTI an
applicant should not give his designation, it is for common people by putting
that we defeat the spirit of RTI. A person in jail can also file RTI. There are
some ethics that officers too need to practice. A man had sent a 40 page
application but was charged Rs 2000 for the query. It was addressed and the
officials made sure he is returned his Rs 1,920 back. Within 30 days the
applicant should be told by concerned officer about the extra fee," Abbas
added.