The Asian Age: New Delhi:
Sunday, April 07, 2013.
PMO acts
tough
Why should
the government want to undermine the Right to Information Act (RTI), which it
otherwise claims as one of its success stories? The Prime Minister’s Office
(PMO) recently denied information about digitisation of its records, sought by
an applicant because he could not show how it was “useful” to him. Sources say
S.E. Rizvi, a
Central Public Information officer at the PMO, refused to supply the
information, despite direction from the First Appellate Authority.
The
applicant, Lokesh Batra, then approached Mr Rizvi’s superior, Krishan Kumar,
director in the PMO. Mr Kumar overruled Mr Rizvi and ordered that the
information sought by Mr Batra be provided within 15 days. But Mr Rizvi is
reportedly sticking to his guns. Now Mr Batra plans to approach the Central
Information Commission with his complaint, which could result in penalty
proceedings against Mr Rizvi.
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