DNA: Mumbai: Saturday,
March 23, 2013.
Verifying
police conduct could become easier now. The state chief information commission
has ordered the police to put up the ‘police manual’ on its website. The manual
is a document that contains the do’s and don’ts of policing, information on
disciplinary action and other related information. In Mumbai, it is called as
the Bombay Police Manual and is followed by every policeman.
The order was
passed on March 19 by chief information commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad.
It was filed
on an application by advocate Pavan Tiwari. Tiwari wanted the police manual as
he was representing a case about disciplinary action on police personnel.
However, the traffic authority to which the application was made did not
provide for it. “They asked me to collect it from the state’s printing press
but the press too didn’t have the copy,” said Tiwari.
The public
information officer too denied Tiwari the document saying seeking the manual
doesn’t come under the RTI Act and that it’s a secret document that can’t be
provided.
However, the
commission thought it otherwise and asked the police to put it up as a
voluntary disclosure. It said that the RTI Act makes it mandatory for all
authorities to put up their rules, regulations, information booklet and other
details voluntarily on their website. It also directed the public information
officer to provide inspection to the documents of all other information related
to the subject to the applicant. The applicant should be given the manual free
of cost, stated Gaikwad’s order.
“We are happy
with the order as our case is based on that,” said Tiwari.
Names of
netas booked under atrocities Act to be out soon
The state
chief information commission has asked the state police’s civil rights
protection cell to upload on its website the names of MPs, MLAs, corporators
and president of Zilla Parishad in Maharashtra who have been booked under the
Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled extent and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities)
Act, 1989.
State chief
information commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad passed the order on March 20 when
applicant, Anand Pargaonkar, sought information on the names of the elected
representatives from the police but was not given.
The public
information officer (PIO) gave the applicant information in parts, stating that
the DGP office only keeps the record in figures. The commission considered that
such information should be available with the DGP office as it is a central
body. It asked the PIO to provide the applicant all information free of cost.
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