Gangadhar S Patil : Express Buzz : Wednesday, September 01, 2010 :
CHENNAI: The State Government department responsible for implementing the Right to Information Act and upholding the spirit of transparency in governance refuses to be transparent, that too on the appointment of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).
In a reply to an RTI query filed with the Personnel and Administrative Reforms (PAR) Department seeking details of the candidates in the fray for the post, Public Information Officer (PIO) S Ramalingam refused to part with the information stating that the applications have “not at all been processed”.
The reply, dated August 25, further says: “The government has not called for any application for filling up of the post of State Chief Information Commission as per the RTI act. Any public can give petition to government for any request as per their wishes and such requests have been received.”
Responding to the RTI application seeking a copy of all the correspondence between Chief Minister and the PAR Department on the appointment of the CIC, the PIO said: “No such correspondence is available with the department.” To the request for a copy of the minutes of the meeting for CIC selection, the department replied, “Meeting is not yet convened”, and dated the reply as August 20 purely with a view to not parting with information. However, nowhere in the reply does the PIO quote any section of the RTI Act under which the information sought was exempted.
On the Government’s refusal, Chennai-based RTI activist V Madhav said: “Section 8 of the RTI Act exempts disclosure of certain information, but refusal of information for the reason that it is not yet processed is farce and not permissible under the RTI Act.”
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