Deccan Herald: Bengaluru: Thursday, August 17, 2017.
Karnataka
Information Commission has declared Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath (KCP) as
public authority under the provisions of Right to Information Act.
The
Commission passed the order on August 9, on an appeal filed by a person who was
denied information by the KCP.
The appeal
was filed by T Narasimha Murthy. He had filed eight applications under the RTI
Act seeking various information, including details about employees working on
contract basis in KCP.
His
application was rejected in May 2016 stating that KCP was not a public
authority as per the provisions under the RTI Act.
After hearing
both the sides, the State Information Commissioner N P Ramesh held that KCP, a
non-government organisation, is indeed a public authority since it is
substantially funded by the state government.
"The
assistance is received for both capital expenditure like construction of
buildings and also for revenue expenditures like salary grant. Further, the
Commission observed that the government may not have any statutory control over
the non government organisation, but still it is established that it has been
substantially financed by the funds provided by the government and its other
agencies. As such, the respondent (KCP) will fall within the scope of Section 2
(h) (d) (ii) of the RTI Act,'' the order stated.
The
Commission directed KCP to appoint its general secretary as public information
officer and also to comply with all the provisions of the RTI Act. KCP has also
been directed to provide information sought by the applicant free of cost by
speed post.
The
Commission had directed KCP to submit the details of grants received and also
the lease agreement entered into with the government. KCP however had submitted
only the copies of the audited financial statements of three years, which
reflected various funds from the state government both as salary grant and for
construction of building.
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