UP Assembly secretariat refuses details of Mayawati presence in House on RTI

The Times of India: Lucknow: Monday, July 30, 2012.

Uttar Pradesh Assembly secretariat has turned down an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking information about presence of former chief minister Mayawati in the House during the five-year tenure of the Bahujan Samaj Party government. The refusal has come on the grounds of inadequate payment of fee by the petitioner.

Giving reference of the UP Assembly Secretariat RTI (fee and cost regulation) Rule, 2007, the public information officer (PIO) of the state Assembly secretariat said the application could not be entertained since the petitioner had not deposited the stipulated amount of fee, Rs 500 and the required amount for photocopying documents at the rate of Rs 15 per page.

The applicant, however, has quoted the fee of Rs 10 and Rs 2 per page photocopy of the document which at present is being charged by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha secretariat for providing information under the RTI Act. Keeping these figures in mind, he has filed an appeal with the UP State Information Commission.

The petitioner has demanded parity in fee structure of legislative bodies so that the poor could also get information from the state Assembly. He said, If needed, I will approach the High Court against the Assembly secretariat's decision for turning down his application.''

RTI activist Saleem Beg in his application had sought information on total number of Assembly sessions organised between May 13, 2007 to December 20, 2011 and the number of days the former chief minister Mayawati was present in the House. He had also sought all the VCDs containing recording of proceedings of the House being made available.

In response to the reply received from the PIO of the state Assembly secretariat, Beg said, the previous BSP government had made several rules which were against the spirit of the RTI Act. The Mayawati government had passed an order barring information being extracted from various important departments including vigilance, aviation, human rights and cooperatives. But the government order was withdrawn only after it was challenged in the High Court. The court had said, the state can not bar people from getting information from these departments under Section 24 (4) of the RTI Act.