UGC urged to ask deemed univs to part with info under RTI Act

Times of India: Trichy: Saturday, 22 August 2020.

Consumer protection council, Tamil Nadu has urged University Grants Commission (UGC) to direct ‘deemed to be universities’ to appoint public information officers to furnish details sought under right to information act (RTI) 2005.

Council secretary S Pushpavanam said he made the request after many of his RTI applications to these universities went unanswered. He said deemed-to-be universities were receiving funds from the government like any other university, but they have not been responding to RTI applications.

“I could not follow them up through appeals as they did not have any public information officer and appellate information officer. Their web sites do not mention anything about RTI giving the impression that they have nothing to do with it,” he said. The council wrote to the UGC seeking a clarification in June and received a reply on July 30. The UGC attached a letter received from CIC, the apex body of RTI Act, in March 2007 which says the deemed-to-be universities were covered under RTI Act. “The very fact that the UGC had referred the matter to CIC shows that they wanted to be sure,” said Pushpavanam. “Although the CIC has written to UGC in 2007, the deemed-to-be universities have managed to suppress this till today by not mentioning anything about RTI on their web-sites,” said Pushpavanam.