Moneylife:
Pune: Friday, 27 March 2015.
A circular of
17th March 2015 issued by the Department of Personnel & Training-DoPT aims
to make Public Information Officers accountable for their replies under the RTI
Most users of
the Right to Information (RTI) Act invariably face the problem of Public
Information Officers (PIOs) sending inadequate and sloppy replies or a standard
tersely formatted reply. Now, the Department of Personnel & Training
(DoPT)’s circular issued on 17 March 2015 aims to make PIOs accountable by
asking them to provide adequate details in their replies.
A Committee
comprising representatives of DoPT, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and
Central Information Commission (CIC), recommended elaborate reasoning for
denying information by quoting specific sections from the RTI Act for such
denial; asking them to providing specific information of their own contacts
(PIO’s); comprehensive details of the First Appellate Authorities (FAAs) and
making it mandatory for PIOs to endorse every document that they provide to the
applicant.
The DoPT has
stated that different PIOs provide information to RTI applicants in different
formats. Though there cannot be a standard format for providing information,
the committee has recommended the reply should essentially contain the
following information:
•
The name, designation, official telephone number and
email ID of the PIO or Central PIO (CPIO).
•
In case the information requested for is denied, detailed
reasons for denial quoting the relevant sections of the RTI Act should be
clearly mentioned.
•
In case the information pertains to any other pubic
authority and the application is transferred under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act,
details of the public authority to whom the application is transferred should
be given.
•
In the concluding para of the reply, it should be clearly
mentioned that the first appeal if any, against the reply of the CPIO may made
to the FAA within 30 days from receipt of reply of CPIO.
•
The name, designation, address, official telephone number
and email ID of the FAA should also be clearly mentioned.
•
In addition, wherever the applicant has requested for
‘certified copies’ of the documents on records, the CPIO should endorse on the
document `True copy of the document/ record’, sign the document with date above
a seal containing name of the officer, CPIO (in place of designation) and name
of public authority.
The DoPT has
sought suggestions from the public and the deadline is 16 April 2015. The
circular states, “It has been decided to invite views and suggestions from the
citizens on the draft guidelines. The views/ suggestions, preferably not
exceeding more than one page, may be sent latest by 16th April through email
only to RK Girdhar, US (RTI), North Block at email id usrti-dopt@nic.in
(Sandeep Jain, Director, (IR), 011 23092755.”
RTI activist
Commodore Lokesh K Batra (Retd) has welcomed the format and also submitted his
suggestions. He said, in the recommendations over information of a different
public authority (in case the applicant has sent it to the wrong public
authority), it should be added that “as far as possible, CPIO transferring
application to another CPIO under Section 6(3) should also include the Email ID
and Phone number of the CPIO to whom the application is being transferred. This
is in keeping with government vision of Digital India.”
Citizens
should take this opportunity to make suggestions within the 16th April
deadline.
Here is link
to the DoPT circular:
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