Fight for RTI Act implementation in NIT.

Deccan Chronicle: WARANGAL:Thursday, Aug 18, 2011.

The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) and first appel­late author­i­ty, offi­cials meant for pro­vid­ing infor­ma­tion under the Right to Information Act, 2005 at the HRD min­is­try-fun­ded National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal, have made a mock­ery of the Act, allege stu­dents. Members of Astra, an anti-cor­rup­tion body set up by a group of NIT alum­ni and stu­dents, said that NIT author­i­ties have not fur­nish­ed replies to more than 60 RTI appli­ca­tions pend­ing since 2009 when the body came into exis­tence. The non-fur­nish­ing of infor­ma­tion by NIT author­i­ties may lead to some of the 2010-11 batch stu­dents pro­test dur­ing their con­vo­ca­tion cer­e­mo­ny sched­uled for August 27. “We will pro­test against the vio­la­tion of the RTI Act by NIT author­i­ties on August 25,” said the NIT Astra mem­ber, Mr Lingam Rajender Reddy, a 2010 batch mechan­i­cal engi­neer and civ­il serv­ices aspir­ant. The tug-of-war for trans­par­en­cy will now see them approach the District Consumer Forum for relief. “We have deci­ded to appr-oach the Consumer Forum to get replies for 70 pend­ing RTI appli­ca­tions, based on a land­mark judge­ment giv­en by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in the S.P. Thirumala Rao case, which treats an RTI appli­cant a “con­sum­er” under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986,” said Mr G. Nachiketa Sharma, an Astra mem­ber. Incidentally, the demand for infor­ma­tion under the RTI was also one of the two rea­sons 500 NIT stu­dents marched from the admin­is­tra­tive block to the NIT main gate in a ral­ly in sup­port of anti-cor­rup­tion cru­sad­er Anna Hazare on Wednesday. However, when con­tac­ted, Mr K. Madhu Murthy, the NIT reg­is­trar and CPIO, denied that more than 70 RTI appli­ca­tions were pend­ing. “We are not giv­ing infor­ma­tion because many quer­ies are of a triv­i­al nature; how many lights are work­ing, etc., while in some cas-es the infor­ma­tion sought is sub-judice,” he said, add­ing that “unnec­es­sa­ry RTI quer­ies pla­ces a bur­den on the admin­is­tra­tive machi­nery”. Meanwhile, sup­port for Anna Hazare pour­ed in from a hand­ful of peo­ple includ­ing the for­mer may­or, Dr T. Rajeshwar, the CPI dis­trict sec­re­ta­ry, Mr T. Sri-nivas Rao and econ­o­mist, Prof K. Venkatanarayana, who marched from Hana-mkonda Chowrasta to Ambedkar Chowk hold­ing the tri­col­our.