Sorry, you've got too many questions: MCG tells RTI applicant

Joel Joseph, TNN, Nov 30, 2010,

GURGAON: The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) has always claimed that it is the most transparent and approachable department in town. However a recent RTI reply on its website might force you to think otherwise.

According to Anil Kumar, a resident of Sector 4, the MCG instead of replying to his RTI query, told him that it cannot answer 35 questions, as they are too many and advised him not to bother them again.

This is clearly stated in a fresh reply he filed (RTI application number- 20101120195) on 20 November, after his first RTI application that he had filed on October 18, addressed to municipal committee, Pataudi via registered mail, failed to yield the desired result.

According to the RTI rules, there is no cap on the number of questions an RTI applicant can seek an answer for. The State Public Information Officer in this case is joint commissioner, Veena Hooda. Despite repeated efforts, attempts to get in touch with her failed.

Interestingly, the municipal commissioner, Rajesh Khullar held a meeting with his senior officers on Monday to discuss the success of RTI execution in the corporation and outline the steps to be taken to make it more successful.

Presently there are around 205 online RTI applications on the corporation website.

In the meeting it was discussed how many residents are using the RTI facility and what has been the rate at which these RTI have been answered. And also in cases where the answers could not be provided within the stipulated time, the reasons for not being able to do so were looked into. We want more and more people to start using the powerful tool, and we are trying to make the process simpler by having senior officials answer the queries, said a senior MCG official.

But the residents are not happy with the MCGs reply.

It is indeed a hilarious reply. First, it wants more and more residents to come forward and use the Right to Information to weed out corruption but on the other hand, they harass people by asking them not to bother them by asking so many questions, complained Geetika Sharma, a Palam Vihar resident.