RTI pleas get police hefty revenue, some headache

Saurabh Prashar, TNN, Oct 3, 2010,

CHANDIGARH: Some interesting facts with UT's police department reveal that the Right to Information (RTI) Act has seen better implementation with each passing year. However, the data also indicates that the number of baseless applications has also seen a surge ever since its implementation in the year 2005.

The number of RTI applications with UT police is increasing year after year. After the implementation of the RTI Act in 2005, police department has received 8,676 RTI pleas from across the country between the period of April 2006 to March 2010.

The police department sent the reply of 8,361 applications, while rejecting 315 pleas due to their 'baseless' nature. The department has earned Rs 91,920 from these applications as registration fee and also earned Rs 2.37 lakh from the additional fee charged from these applicants.

Information sought by TOI from the police revealed that during the first year of RTI Act 2005, the department had received only 925 applications between 2006-07. During March 2009-10, a total of 2,899 applications were received by police authorities.

The department had received 111 baseless and unnecessary RTI applications between 2009 and 2010, which were outrightly rejected by police department. Also, departmental action was taken against three staff members of the department for dealing with RTI meaningless applications.

Talking to TOI, a senior official said a total 2,273 applications received by the department were transferred to other wings of UT administration as the petitions were genuine but had nothing to do with the department.

The maximum registration fee of Rs 63,940 and additional charges amounting to Rs 1.23 lakh were received between April 2008 and March 2009, when police department had received 2,428 RTI applications.

Though maximum petitions touching the 2899 mark were received during the period 2009-10, but the department had earned only Rs 1,830 as registration fee and Rs 43,442 in the form of additional fee and other charges.