BBMP departments use its RTI cell to keep applicants at bay

Economic Times: Bengaluru: Friday, November 24, 2017.

When Shashidhar, a resident of CV Raman Nagar, approached the Major Roads Department of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike recently with a Right to Information application, he was directed to the BBMP’s RTI Cell.

Similarly on Friday, the BBMP’s Welfare Department re- fused to accept an RTI application from this correspondent, insisting it had to be filed with the RTI Cell. The State Information Commission has now recommended that this decade-old, understaffed RTI Cell be shut, primarily in reaction to the BBMP’s various departments shrugging off their responsibility in accepting RTI applications relevant to them.

According to the RTI Act, public information officers (PIOs) or assistant public information officers of government departments are required to accept RTI applications from citizens pertaining to their departments.

The BBMP established the RTI Cell in 2006 to help citizens unfamiliar with the process or unable to determine which department had to be approached for a specific information. Back then, the RTI Act was new and a central office to receive applications for all BBMP departments, including zonal offices, was appreciated. The departments would continue to process applications received directly as well as through the RTI Cell. Several of the BBMP’s 26 departments, however, refuse to accept RTI applications, leading to inevitable delays in disclosing or sharing information.

The State Information Commission has proposed the closure of the BBMP’s RTI Cell so that PIOs of its departments would have no option but to accept RTI applications, said a BBMP official, declining to be identified. A proposal in this regard has been sent to the BBMP Commissioner, he said. “We have been repeatedly telling the departments not to send applicants to us,” said a staff member of the RTI  Cell, requesting anonymity.

“If a person files an application in the Cell, it would take 3-4 days to reach the department concerned. The countdown of 30 days for providing information starts from the day the public information officer receives an application from the RTI Cell.” The five-member RTI Cell receives 30-40 applications a day.

RTI activist Sai Datta said that though the BBMP’s RTI Cell was set up with good intentions, it has been misused. “The BBMP has to put dis- play boards with full information about PIOs, APIOs and Appellate Authority outside every department,” he said.

Vikram Simha, a trustee at the RTI Study Centre nonprofit who played a pivotal role in the establishment of the BBMP’s RTI Cell, said the State Information Commission had no power to issue directives for its closure. “It’s purely the BBMP’s decision to continue or close down (the RTI Cell),” he said.

“The Cell helps people, specially those who are un- aware of the RTI process. Instead of closing it, BBMP should ensure that the PIOs do not refuse to accept RTI applications.”