Times
of India: Hyderabad: Saturday, 22 November 2014.
Obtaining
information through Right to Information (RTI) just became a costly affair. An
activist, who had earlier this month sought information on developmental works
was left flummoxed after the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage
Board (HMWS&SB), in their reply, asked him to pay a whopping Rs 32,470 for
providing the demanded statistics.
In a series
of five questions, a social activist Mohammed Abdul Akram of Yugantar (NGO)
sought data on the number of completed and pending projects in Moghalpura, and
the budgeted amount earmarked for each. He had also requested information on
the list of borewells sanctioned from 2009 to 2014, apart from requesting
details on the number of sanctioned bore-wells which were yet to be dug.
Instead of
furnishing the information, HMWS&SB general manager of O&M division 1,
Miralam S V Ramana Rao on November 11 gave the applicant a list of charges
which the water works department would reportedly incur in providing the
information.
What is
ironic is that out of the Rs 32,470 "fee", only Rs 60 was mentioned
as cost component for typing and printing the information.
Invoking
section 7 (3) of the RTI Act in reply to the NGO activist, the HMWS&SB said
that it would need a technical officer (TO), a manager, an attendant and a data
processing officer (DPO) to procure the information and that the entire
procedure would take eight days. Calculating salaries of each staff member for
the same period, the applicant was asked to shell out Rs 17,240 as changes for
deputing the TO, Rs 4,434 for the manager, Rs 7,672 for the attendant and Rs
3,064 for the DPO.
"The
information I sought was simple. I have not asked for any technical plans. By
unjustifiably charging me, it seems the HMWS&SB is trying to block
information," Akram claimed.
When TOI
tried to contact the HMWS&SB general manager of O&M division 1, Miralam
S V Ramana Rao, he remained unavailable for comments.