Mumbai colleges flooded with RTI applications from students

Puja Pednekar; DNA,: October 27, 2010

Mumbai: As if students bunking lectures or political parties arm-twisting for admissions is not enough, city colleges are now facing fresh bouts of trouble from the student 'RTI wallahs'.

Though the admission season is over, college principals admit that many students are using the Right to Information (RTI) Act, to ask balance sheets, last year's admission records, or even certain old records dating back to the year 1954.

The state had recently declared that RTI Act will become applicable to private unaided schools as well. The basic problem, as many college principals claim, is that students, political parties as well as student organisations are using the act to seek weird information. "After our third merit list closed in September, we had students making a beeline to ask for old admission records. And if we refuse to provide such records they threaten us (with legal consequences)," said a principal from a prominent south Mumbai college, on the condition of anonymity.

However, not all such applications can be written off as 'absurd'. For instance, Ratna Pathak, an FYJC commerce student of Kirti College, Dadar has filed a query in most of the city's top colleges to find out the corruption in management, sports and cultural quotas. "Some of the colleges have responded to the request, but many are pending," she says.

While city colleges are inundated with RTI queries, Ramnarain Ruia College, Dadar claims to have had over 100 pending. "Most times, students just file for the heck of it. They do not even bother to respond once we give them the information. It puts a strain on our resources and staff," said Suhas Pednekar, principal, Ruia. "We have advised students to use the act in a constructive manner," she says.

MB Fernandes, principal of St Andrews College echoed these thoughts, but she claims to have found a solution to discourage students from filing pointless queries. "We began collecting money against every query filed. That has brought down the numbers," she said.

For colleges, this new trend is making life difficult. Recently, many colleges were fined for not responding to the queries. Five public relation officers' of city-based colleges have been fined a sum of Rs25,000 by the state chief information commissioner for not providing information under the act.

College principals claim that the nature of information sought by students under RTI, is sometimes strange. But some students have used it to expose the corruption and malpractice prevalent in colleges for admissions under management, sports and cultural quota.