The Tribune: Chandigarh: Sunday, August 19, 2018.
The Sirsa
office of the Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited
(HAFED) has sent 32,017 pages (weighing around 150 kg) to a resident of Darba
Kalan in Sirsa in response to an RTI plea.
Registered
parcels comprising 11 bundles arrived at the Darba Kalan post office this week
to be delivered to information-seeker Anil Kaswan.
“I am a
farmer and also believe in social service. In June, I moved an application
seeking information on procurement of wheat and mustard in 2018, government
norms regarding procurement and release of payment. I did so after discovering
irregularities in the procurement of mustard and the inordinate delay in
release of payments. The DC office re-directed my application to HAFED,” Kaswan
said.
On July 2, he
received a communication from the State Public Information Officer (SPIO) of
HAFED that the information sought by him ran into thousands of pages and advised
him to visit the office in Sirsa for inspection of records.
Under belief
that the SPIO was trying to discourage him, Kaswan did not visit the HAFED
office. On July 16, he again received a letter asking him to deposit Rs 68,834 Rs
2 per page for 32,017 pages of information and Rs 800 towards postal charges.
The letter,
however, was silent about Rs 4,000 as the total cost of pages and postal
charges came out to be Rs 64,834. Kaswan submitted a draft for Rs 68,834 and
the consignment of 11 bundles has been received by the village branch of the
post office.
Meanwhile,
Kartar Singh, another RTI activist from Sirsa, has approached the Chief
Secretary, accusing HAFED of harassing the information-seeker. “Instead of
providing concrete data, the District Office prepared vague data to dissuade
the applicant. A perusal of the original RTI application reveals that the
information demanded is simple in nature,” he claimed.