The Hindu: Tamilnadu: Thursday,
February 23, 2017.
In a bizarre
reply to an application filed under the Right to Information Act of 2005, the
Public Information Officer (PIO)-cum-Under Secretary of Tamil Development and
Information Department has told the applicant that he can only seek
“information” and not “ask questions” under the Act.
R.
Lakshminarayanan, secretary of Bharathiyar Thinkers’ Forum, a private
organisation based here, had asked the PIO if there were any reasonable hurdles
in implementing orders passed by the Madras High Court Bench here on April 22
last directing the government to start short duration correspondence courses to
teach Tamil to non-Tamils across the globe at a nominal cost.
Replying to
this, the Under Secretary A. Amaresan has said that the applicant’s plea was in
the form of a query and not information. “Therefore, the answer to your
question cannot be provided in the form of information under Section 2(1) of
the rules framed under the RTI Act,” the officer said.
He added that
only documents, official notes, e-mails, proposals, instructions, press
releases, circulars, orders, diary notings, agreements, statements, application
formats, information in electronic format, and so on, would fall under the
definition of the term ‘information’ which could be provided under the Act.
The PIO also
gave a similar reply to another question on the time it would take for the
Tamil Development Department to implement the court order and consequently
sanction necessary funds to the Tamil University in Thanjavur for starting the
correspondence courses.
“This plea of
yours is also in the form of a question and not information. Therefore, it
cannot be answered,” he said.
Expressing
surprise over the kind of reply given to him by the PIO, Mr. Lakshminarayanan
wonders how an applicant can seek information without asking questions.
“These kinds
of replies only exhibit the attitude of the government officials to evade the
RTI Act which they consider to be a pain in the neck,” he laments.
His forum had
been making representations to the Tamil Development Department since 2011 to
introduce short term correspondence courses in Tamil as it was being done by
the Central Hindi Directorate by providing reading materials and audio
cassettes at a cost of Rs. 50 for a certificate course and Rs. 200 for a
diploma.
It was only
when its repeated requests to the department went unheard that the forum filed
a public interest litigation petition in the High Court. Allowing the case on
April 22, a Division Bench of Justices V. Ramasubramanian and N. Kirubakaran
criticised the department for not showing enough interest in developing the
classical language.
“The
government has not moved an inch in considering the petitioner’s request and so
he has approached this court... This court has to necessarily direct the
government to act upon the proposal to start correspondence courses to teach
Tamil within 12 weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order,” the
judges had said.
Even the
court order was not obeyed. Replying to a RTI application on August 11, the
department informed the forum that a proposal for sanctioning of funds was
pending with the government. On September 16, it stated that a Government Order
was yet to be passed on the issue.
Now,
responding to the third application, the department has taken a peculiar stand
that it can only provide information under the RTI Act and not answer
questions.
This plea of
yours is also in the form of a question and not information.