In a first, activist gets RTI reply on SMS.

Deccan Chronicle; G. Jagannath; chennai; Wednesday, Apr 27, 2011,

In a first-of-its-kind reply, a public information officer (PIO) of Tamil Nadu information commission (TNIC) has provided information to an RTI activist who sought it through an SMS.

Activist V. Gopalakrishnan had sent an SMS to the state chief information commissioner (SCIC) on April 11 seeking to know whether the commission has directed PIOs of the Tamil Nadu government departments not to provide information to a list of RTI activists.

Denying issuing any such instructions to the public authorities, Mr S. Karunagaran, assistant registrar and PIO of TNIC, said, “With reference to your SMS given to SCIC, on April 11, I am to state that you have not addressed the PIO, TNIC, duly affixing court fee stamp of `10 to supply the information required.”

However, the PIO said the commission does not maintain a list of RTI activists’ names and addresses. He also clarified that the commission did not issue any instructions to the public authorities not to supply information to the activists.

“This is the first time a PIO has given information under the RTI Act based on an SMS,” Mr Gopalakrishnan said, adding that though he had made similar complaints through SMS before, he had never got a reply for any of them.

The activist said he sent the SMS following rumours that the SCIC has asked the PIOs in the government departments not to provide information to a list of RTI activists as they were creating problems to the government by exposing irregularities in the administration.

According to RTI (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005, a person who desires to obtain any information from a public authority under sub-section 1 of section 6 of the Act, shall pay an application fee to the public authority along with the application that seeks any information.