Bangalore Mirror: Bangalore: Monday, July 24, 2017.
Information
commission ruled that KCMF receives ‘substantial’ grant from the govt and was
hence a public authority
The state
information commission has ruled that cooperative institutions receiving
‘substantial assistance’ from state will now have to divulge information under
the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
The case
pertains to an RTI application filed by a person named GV Manjunath. In March
2014, Manjunath had filed an RTI seeking information on funds the government
gave to Kolar-Chikkaballapura Milk Federation (KCMF) as incentive to be
distributed to students during the years 2011-12 and 2012-13.
In the
landmark judgment, the state information commission declared that KCMF was a
public authority and also directed it to set up a PIO (public information
officer). The fall-out of the case: most milk federations in the state that
enjoy hundreds of crores of rupees in government grant and subsidy will now on
fall under the RTI ambit.
Manjunath had
also sought many details including incentives paid to school students, with the
name of student, father’s name, incentive amount, date and cheque details.
Manjunath was
told that cooperative societies do not come under the ambit of the RTI Act and
hence there was no provision to provide information. He then filed an appeal
before the state information commission in August 2015.
In its
petition, KCMF, citing a circular dated 23.1.2009, claimed that only
cooperative societies governed under the definition of ‘public authority’ were
bound to give information. So, as it was not a public authority and did not
fall under the RTI ambit, KCMF sought dismissal of the appeal.
Not a
Public authority?
The
commission, to ascertain if KCMF was a public authority or not, had sought its
consolidated audit report for three years. KCMF submitted its account of
statements in July last year.
In his
statements, Manjunath had said that the government was giving incentives to
milk unions at the rate of `4 per litre through the animal and husbandry
department, and for six months it came to the tune of `263 crore.
He had
further submitted that the government had sanctioned 15 acres of land at
Chikkaballapura and 29 acres at Kolar free of cost, and another 50 acres had
been sanctioned for fodder development.
AID NOT
FOR SURVIVAL
However, KCMF
said merely getting subsidiaries, grants, exemptions and privileges cannot be
called substantial funding unless it is established that the establishment
would struggle to exist without the assistance.
EVEN Rs
10,000 IS ASSISTANCE
However,
after observing that grants and financial assistance ran into several hundred
crores, the commission ruled that it qualified as “substantial financing” by
the government.
Citing
Supreme Court and High Court directives, it ruled that even an assistance of
`10,000 from the government qualified as ‘substantial assistance’.
Finally, the
commission declared KCMF as a public authority and appointed the general
manager as public information officer. It also ordered the PIO to provide
information which had been sought.
“This will
bring in accountability to government money being spent,” an animal husbandry
department senior officer told Mirror.