Times of India: Hyderabad: Friday, 13 February 2015.
The chief minister's office (CMO), it appears, is
not interested in upholding the spirit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The information commission recently came down heavily on public information
officers of the CMO, the minorities welfare department (MWD) and the AP State
Wakf Board (APSWB) for not having furnished information under the RTI Act
concerning the action taken with respect to mismanagement of wakf properties.
The applicant, Khaja Aijazuddin, a lawyer, citing
a 2008 SC order which directed the government of undivided Andhra Pradesh to
probe the mismanagement of the APSWB in the last two decades, its issuing of no
objection certificates and leasing of properties in its custody, sought a
status report.
According to Aijazuddin, the CMO forwarded the
query to the MWD citing that no information was available. The MWD subsequently
forwarded the application to the APSWB. When information was not forthcoming,
the applicant filed the first appeal with the CMO, only to find out that it was
transferred to the MWD. The applicant approached the commission with his second
appeal.
In his order (a copy of which is available with
TOI) given on Monday, information commissioner S Imtiyaz Ahmed noted that the
PIO of the CMO, "negligently" and "blindly forwarded" the
application to another PIO with "malafide intention". This, he
reasoned, was akin to denying information. He also noted the information should
be available with the CMO as the SC had ordered the state government to take
necessary action.
Ahmed described the attitude of the PIO and first
appellant authority (FAA) of the CMO as "negative" with respect to
the implementation of the RTI act. "This case is a classic example that
even officials of the CM's office are unaware of provisions of the Act and the
procedure to be followed," he lashed out in the order. "The PIO is
seriously warned for not warning the procedure. Similarly the FAA (is) also
warned for not adhering to the procedure contemplated under the act.
He observed that it was "high time" the
government conduct awareness programmes "particularly in the CMO
periodically, in order to implement effectively the provisions of the RTI
Act." Issuing a show cause notice to the CMO, Ahmed directed the PIO and
the FAA to provide the information to the applicant within 15 days of the order
and submit to the commission a compliance report.
"I was aggrieved with the functioning of the
CMO with respect to the furnishing of information. How can they deny simple but
crucial information? Hence I appealed before the commission, Aijazuddin told TOI
on Thursday.
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