Times of India: Nagpur: Thursday, August 17, 2017.
The State
Information Commissioner (Nagpur) Dilip Dharurkar has directed the regional
transport office (RTO) to conduct an inquiry into refusal to accept RTI
application sent through private courier.
The
Information commissioner stated that this defeats the purpose of RTI Act and
warned RTO's public information officer (PIO) not to repeat such violation in
future or face punishment under Section 20(1) and 19(8) of RTI Act.
The
directives were given over a complaint filed by RTI activist Avinash Prabhune
who had sent an RTI application dated October 22, 2016, through a private
courier to RTO seeking information about 'action against noisy silencers and
unnecessary honking with pressure/musical horns' for the period January 2015 to
September 30. The RTO officials refused to even accept the courier seeing the
name of Prabhune on the envelope.
Earlier, RTO
officials had refused to accept letters from Prabhune on three occasions
(September 5, 2014, July 13, 2015 and August 11, 2015). All such refusals were
informed to RTO Nagpur and transport commissioner, Mumbai, but no action was
taken.
Prabhune
filed complaint under Section 18 of RTI Act before state information
commission, Nagpur, on November 16, 2016 highlighting irregularities at RTO
office. Prabhune submitted evidence for refusal and subsequently, the SIC
conducted hearing on April 7, 2017.
During
hearings, RTO Office, ARTO and PIO and Deputy RTO and Appellate Authority
informed the commission that inquiry will be conducted over the complaint.
The SIC
observed that as per RTI act provisions, PIO is under obligation to provide
information immediately within 30 days under any circumstances and the PIO has
violated the provisions of RTI act by refusing to accept RTI application in the
present matter.
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