Pune police have poor RTI record: State information commissioner

DNA; Partha Sarathi Biswas; Monday, February 28, 2011,

The state information commissioner (SIC), Vijay Kuvalekar,has observed that a lot needs to be done by the Pune police towards satisfactory implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

“The Pune police have a very bad track record when it comes to answering queries within the given time frame. In 90% cases against the police which came before me, the applicant did not receive the information within the stipulated time of one month. The reason for this is the lack of coordination between the various police stations and the commissioner’s office,” he said.

As per the prevalent practice, the police commissioner’s office accepts the RTI applications at its single window counter and distributes them to police stations concerned.

“During hearings, I have observed that the applications were kept pending at the commissioner’s office for almost a month, before they were dispatched to the individual police stations,” he observed.

“When it comes to imposing fines, by the time the case comes to me for hearing, the officer who accepted the application is invariably transferred. Therefore, I can’t impose a fine on him. This is a serious cause of concern, as the spirit of the RTI Act, is undermined,” he said.

Taking a serious view about this lackadaisical attitude of the police department, the information commissioner has decided to take up the matter with police commissioner Meeran Borwankar.