News18: Bhopal: Sunday, September 16, 2018.
The Right To Information (RTI) act that
has been instrumental in exposing several gross corruption cases in Madhya
Pradesh landed in soup over botched-up implementation yet again, after an RTI
applicant who was asked to pay the Goods and Services Tax (GST) of Rs 7 for
getting information from the MP Housing and Infrastructure Development Board,
has now received its refund cheque of Rs 7.
As RTI applicant Ajay Dubbey went public
with details, the board realized its mistake and recently a cheque of Rs 7 landed
at his doorstep.
The Public Information Officer, in a
letter has maintained that Rs 7 was deposited without the information of legal
provisions and the amount is now being refunded through cheque.
MP Housing Board –a MP government entity
responding to a query put up under RTI in June this year, levied GST of Rs 7 on
Xerox copies of the documents sought by the applicant.
Dubbey paid Rs 43 Rs 36 as photocopy
charges for 18 pages (at the rate of Rs two per page), Rs 3.5 as CGST and Rs
3.5 as SGST, the documents show.
“Even the refund is erroneous. Rs 10
recovered as GST along with the inspection charge recovered by the board from
me for visiting their office and perusing documents is yet to be refunded,”
senior RTI activist Ajay Dubey told News18.
The volunteer activist who has been
involved in exposing gross anomalies in Vyapam, the MP Forest department, mega
irrigation projects, EVMs and several other issues through his query to MP
Housing Board, had sought details of repair and beautification of the Real
Estate Regulatory Authority building.
According to Dubbey, this incident
vindicates state government’s lackadaisical approach in terms of training and
sensitization of officers on a crucial transparency law that was implemented 13
years ago.
This is not the only incident that
highlights the reckless implementation of the act, Dubey said, adding how once,
his RTI query about a reputed law institute in Bhopal was questioned on the
grounds of ‘intention or interests’. He also received a letter issued by the
authority for the same.
“I had moved Information Commission
against the unlawful query from the institute and secured a favorable verdict
from the commission,” he said.
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