DNA: Mumbai: Tuesday, June 30, 2015.
Seeking
information from the civic body may become smoother. A recently issued circular
from Brihanmumbai Municipal Commission (BMC) commissioner Ajoy Mehta, which is
co-signed by other senior officials, warns civic officials to not make citizens
run around for information sought under the RTI Act.
The warning
has come following numerous complaints against civic officials for not
providing information or instead asking RTI applicants to come and inspect the
records themselves. It was also said that when applicants turn up for
inspection, officials are either not present or provide them with a pile of
papers with no indexation for finding relevant information from.
Objections
were raised by the state information commission and RTI activists, after which
the BMC issued the circular dated May 19, 2015.
It has
directed civic staffers to not ask applicants to come and inspect files, when
they have not asked for inspection, and give information in writing. Where
information is voluminous, the applicant should be given a file with proper
index and pages marked for his/her perusal, it adds.
To ensure
that there is no ambiguity or shirking away from responsibility when calling
applicants for inspection, officers have been told to provide time, ie give the
applicant the option of three days when s/he can come and inspect files. The
public information officer should provide his office contact number along with
e-mail ID, the circular states, adding, in case he has to be out of office for
some work, he has to assign the responsibility to someone else in his office so
that the applicant does not suffer.
Member of
BMC's Technical Advisory Committee Bhaskar Prabhu said, "We welcome the
move by the corporation. We have been asking for this and it is result of our
demand. The corporation saw the genuineness of our demand. This circular was
released to facilitate inspection in a proper way."