Pune revenue officers fail to maintain mandatory records.

Daily Bhaskar: Partha Sarathi Biswas:Monday,September 25, 2011.

Pune: Many special land acquisition officers (SLOs) under the Pune district collectorate have failed to maintain mandatory records of the applications received by them under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. This was revealed in response to a RTI application filed by DNA with the general branch of the Pune district collectorate.

DNA had asked for details of RTI applications received by the Pune collector's office, including details of the number of first appeals filed, names and designations of the public information officers and the appellate authority in the 59 offices under the district collectorate.

The collectorate had furnished the monthly reports it sends to the divisional commissioner's office and also forwarded the application to 59 offices.

The report, 'Collectorate furnishes inaccurate data' (DNA, September 14) had highlighted the discrepancies in reports pertaining to RTI applications of the general branch of the collectorate and the individual departments, apparently due to lack of coordination between them.

In response to the RTI application, a majority of SLOs, instead of furnishing the number of applications received by their office, had asked the applicant to come for file inspection to get the data.

Sources in the general branch told DNA that a majority of the SLOs did not maintain the mandatory reports and thus, when asked, were unable to furnish the same in response to DNA's application.

Some senior revenue officers said that the state information commissioner (SIC) had advised revenue officers to call applicants for inspection in case the information was voluminous. "That advice is being misinterpreted by many," said a senior officer on condition of anonymity.

RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar asked for administrative action against officers who have called for inspection under the RTI Act. "The option for inspection is to be used only in case of voluminous interpretation. In this case, the information sought had to be furnished," he said.