The Hindu: Coimbatore: Wednesday, January 31, 2018.
Two replies
to as many queries under the Right to Information Act from the Local Fund Audit
Department and Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department have
flummoxed activists.
In his
petition to the Local Fund Audit Department, Vellalore resident and activist J.
Daniel Yesudas has sought details of reports for audit conducted from October
2011 to January 2018 in the Coimbatore Corporation. And, he wanted the reports
initialled and sorted year-wise.
He had filed
the RTI query on January 2, 2018.
In response
to his query, the Deputy Director, Local Fund Audit Department, for Coimbatore
Corporation replied on January 18 that since the nature of the details sought
for fell under third party information and held in fiduciary capacity, his
office would not be able to furnish those.
He also said
that the replies fell under Section 8 (1)(j) and 8 (1)(g) and quoted a court
order to substantiate his denial of information.
Section
(1)(j) of the RTI Act states that Notwithstanding anything contained in this
Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen - information which
relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to
any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of
privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the
State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may
be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of
such information.
And, Section
(1)(g) states: information, the disclosure of which would endanger the life or
physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or
assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purposes.
Commenting on
the reply, Mr. Daniel said the objective seemed to be to not disclose the
information. It was an audit report and meant for public scrutiny for what was
audited was public money by the Coimbatore Corporation.
In his reply
to RTI query by MDMK leader and activist V. Eswaran, the HR&CE Department’s
Commissioner said it did not have the details related to the extent of temple
tanks, water holding capacity, the last date of rejuvenation, and the money
spent for the purpose.
He also said
the Department maintained 2,359 temples and if the petitioner wanted details
related to the temples, he could obtain those by specifying the temples.
Mr. Eswaran
said what else could be the purpose of the department other than protecting and
maintaining temple properties.
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