The Hindu: Visakhapatnam: Wednesday,
May 11, 2016.
Public
Information Officers of Government departments must understand the Right to
Information Act and provide information sought by the citizens filing petitions
under the Act, Central Information Commissioner Madabhushi Sridhar Acharyulu
told the district officials here on Tuesday.
“RTI Act is a
weapon for the people and information sought for them must be given in the
stipulated time. Not providing information in time would attract penalty and
even imprisonment,” Dr. Sridhar Acharyulu said at a district-level coordination
meeting. He explained provisions of the Act and how the petitioner has to be
answered. Petitioner can also examine the records in a government office by
paying a fee. Every office has to preserve the records, files and registers
that are deemed important. Petitions that are filed for personal reasons have
to examined whether they can be useful to the public.
He also answered
queries from the officers. District Revenue Officer Chandrasekhar Reddy, RDO
Venkateswarlu and others attended.
Call to
varsity
At Andhra
University, the CIC spoke to the officers, HoDs and staff and told them that
the RTI Act and the Right to Education Act must be implemented in full.
“It is
necessary for a university to reveal to the public its agenda and decision
taken. Absolute transparency is needed in the case of appointments, promotions,
transfers and purchases”, he suggested.
Dr. Sridhar
felt that the number of petitions under the RTI Act would come down if the
university was able to solve the problems of its students, their parents and
employees.
Vice-Chancellor
in-charge E.A. Narayana, Registrar V. Umamaheswara Rao spoke.
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