Indian Express: Pune: Friday, March 20, 2015.
If the public
works department (PWD) is to be believed, renovation work carried out for a
suite in anticipation of the visit of the then president Prathibha Patil was
out of bound for inspection by public.
The
department, which had refused inspection under the Right to Information Act,
will now have to relent as the State Information Commissioner (SIC) D B
Deshpande last week ordered the department to allow inspection.
The tale of
the suite began when Latur resident Anurath Chandmare, along with media
personnel, sought for permission to inspect under the RTI.
The suite was
used by Patil during the course of an official stay in Latur back in 2008. In
anticipation of the stay, the PWD spruced up the suite. Chandmare had sought
permission to inspect the work undertaken, as well as the furniture in the
suite.
Executive
engineer of the PWD, who also happened to be the Public Information Officer
(PIO), rejected the application, stating that no such provision existed under
the RTI Act.
Chandmare
took his case to the superintendent engineer the appellate authority (AA) of
the office. The AA decided to side with the PIO’s decision and dismissed
Chandmare’s plea. An aggrieved Chandmare went on to file a second appeal before
Deshpande.
While
examining the case, Deshpande drew upon the examination of “information” as
provided under Section 2 of the RTI Act. The SIC observed that the “right to
information” section included inspection of works, documents, records, as well
as the right to take notes, extracts or certified copies of the documents.
“The
applicant has the full right to inspect the suite. However, the RTI Act has no
provision for media to accompany applicants,” Deshpande’s judgement read. “The
applicant should be allowed inspection of the suite within 15 days of passing
the order,” the judgement read.
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