The
Asian Age: Mumbai: Thursday, 03 December 2015.
Convicted and
under trial prisoners will have to show their monthly income before filing an
RTI query to prove their financial status. The decision of the General
Administration Department has been taken after it was realised that all the
prisoners are not below poverty line and hence they should pay the minimum fees
required to get any information under the RTI.
As per the
RTI act, the people Below Poverty Line (BPL) are given information free of
cost. However, the state government on December 1 has asked the prison
authorities to check financial status of the prisoners and not to consider all
of them BPL.
With the
decision, the prisoners will have to pay minimum Rs 10 for each RTI query they
file to seek information.
“Do not consider
convicted and under trials as BPL. Those who come from BPL strata would be
exception,” the notification by the government said.
“But if they
are convicted and serving punishment for more than a year in the prison then
they might be earning more than BPL limit in the jails. In such cases, the
prisoner should not be considered as BPL. Also, the income proofs of the
prisoners should be verified before considering them BPL, ” the notification
added.
The BPL
definition says anyone in urban areas earning below Rs 591.75 and a person with
yellow ration cards in rural areas is poor. So, as per the decision, even if
the prisoners are from BPL family and serving jail term for over a year, they
will have to show their jail income which might be more than the BPL limit.
The General
Administration Department has justified its decision by saying that the RTI act
does not clearly mention whether prisoners should be considered as BPL or not.
The government was mulling over the decision. Hence it was decided to go as per
the BPL definition, the notification added.
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