Deccan Herald: New Delhi: Monday, June 10, 2013.
When it comes
to adhering to rules, the government department often becomes a stickler,
throwing norms of pragmatism to the winds.
In the latest
such instance, the Home Ministry has demanded Rs 2 from an RTI applicant as
photocopying charges in order to furnish him the information. This is over and
above Rs 10 that an applicant has to pay for seeking any information under the
transparency law. In the process, it spent over Rs 20 for sending a registered
letter to the information seeker.
The Central
Information Commission has disapproved of this practice saying there was
nothing wrong in demanding charges for photocopy of a document but it should
not go to the extent of spending more money in sending a letter, requisitioning
the desired amount.
Chief
Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra asked the public information officer
to keep this factor in mind while demanding charges for photocopies.
“We
understand that the chief public information officer (CPIO) of the Ministry of
Home Affairs had asked the appellant to deposit Rs 2 for providing the copy of
one page of information. While technically this might be correct, it is not
prudent to do so because in the process, much more public money is lost in
correspondence. We hope the CPIO will keep this in mind while demanding photocopying
charges in future,” the commissioner said.
In the
instant case, noted RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal sought information
regarding the conferring of Padma awards in 2013 and certain controversies
associated with it. The President’s Secretariat as well as the MHA provided
certain information.
But Agrawal
was not satisfied with the information provided by the CPIO. He contended that
the CPIO did not address the queries adequately. Upon this, the CPIO asked him
to visit the websites concerned. When Agrawal insisted on being provided the
information in hard copy, the CPIO asked him to first deposit Rs 2.
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