Moneylife: Srikrishna Kachva: Mumbai: Sunday, November 26, 2017.
In a strange incident, the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of Life Insurance Corp of India (LIC) had asked an applicant to pay additional fee of Rs10 for an application forwarded by another public authority under Right to Information (RTI) Act. As per RTI Act, the applicant is not required to pay separate or additional fee for application transferred by one public authority to other for providing information. LIC seems to have cooked up this change on its own.
Pune-based RTI activist Sanjay Shirodkar, on 7 October 2017, had filed application with Maharashtra’s Social Justice and Special Assistant Department seeking information about ‘Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY)’. After receiving the application on 13 October 2017, the Public Information Officer (PIO) transferred the application to LIC on 24 October 2017 under Section 6(3)(ii) of the RTI Act. “The PIO is mandated to transfer RTI application to other public authority within five days after receiving it. In this case, my RTI application was forwarded after 11 days, a delay of six days,” Mr Shirodkar says.
Shockingly the CPIO of LIC, through a letter on 31 October 2017 asked Mr Shirodkar to pay Rs10 as fee for his RTI application. Mr Shirodkar says, “I had already paid the stipulated Rs10 as fee through court fee stamp with my original RTI application filed with the Social Justice and Special Assistant Dept. Since the PIO of the Department forwarded my RTI application, the PIO of LIC should not have asked me to pay additional Rs10 as fee as I had already paid it. This is unreasonable and sad also.”
The PIOs of both the Department and LIC erred, according to Mr Shirodkar. He says, “First the PIO of the Department took more days to transfer by RTI application, citing that the AABY Scheme is implemented by LIC and hence in better position to provide information. Secondly, the PIO of LIC, despite me paying the requisite fee, asked me to pay for an application that was forwarded under Section 6(3)(ii) of the RTI Act.”
“All delaying tactics, dilution of RTI, whims and fancies, new discoveries and inventions about the decisions are still continued by Public Information Officers by State and Central both in spite of being this Act has completed 12 long years,” Mr Shirodkar added.
He had filed his first appeal before the First Appellate Authority for delay in transferring his RTI application and asking him to pay additional Rs10 as fee.
Everything under the RTI Act is governed by the statute and LIC cannot make up any charges against it.
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