Daily Pioneer: Bhubaneswar: Wednesday, 27 July 2022.
Despite the tall claims of transparency under the much-touted 5T initiative of the State Government, a clear case of careless official response to queries under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has come to the fore.
Recently, a Sonepur based RTI activist Srikumar Mahanta, submitted an RTI application to Tarbha Notified Area Council (NAC) seeking specific information about Government funds sactioned to the NAC.
Mahanta, through an RTI application, had asked the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Tarbha NAC to supply details regarding the funds sanctioned year wise to Tarbha NAC since 2010 to till date from Housing and Urban Development Department for the purpose of plantation of trees and the photocopies of the photo of trees, which have planted during that year.
Mahanta submitted the RTI application on June 3, 2022. However, the NAC officials had not given a single reply although more than a month has been passed, in order to evade a direct response to the specific query.
Interestingly, according to the provisions of the RTI Act, the PIOs are required to transfer the applications within a maximum period of five days (from the date of actual receipt of query) to the concerned departments under which they think specific information can be available.
As the authorities failed to provide the information, Mahanta moved the Odisha Information Commission and filed a complaint against Public Information Officer (PIO) Biswa Ranjan Naik of Tarbha NAC.
Meanwhile, Mahanta has also given a petition to the Collector cum District Magistrate Aboli Sunil Narvane urging her to direct the authorities to supply the details and punish the officials responsible for denying him his right to information under Section 20(I) of RTI Act.
Despite the tall claims of transparency under the much-touted 5T initiative of the State Government, a clear case of careless official response to queries under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has come to the fore.
Recently, a Sonepur based RTI activist Srikumar Mahanta, submitted an RTI application to Tarbha Notified Area Council (NAC) seeking specific information about Government funds sactioned to the NAC.
Mahanta, through an RTI application, had asked the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Tarbha NAC to supply details regarding the funds sanctioned year wise to Tarbha NAC since 2010 to till date from Housing and Urban Development Department for the purpose of plantation of trees and the photocopies of the photo of trees, which have planted during that year.
Mahanta submitted the RTI application on June 3, 2022. However, the NAC officials had not given a single reply although more than a month has been passed, in order to evade a direct response to the specific query.
Interestingly, according to the provisions of the RTI Act, the PIOs are required to transfer the applications within a maximum period of five days (from the date of actual receipt of query) to the concerned departments under which they think specific information can be available.
As the authorities failed to provide the information, Mahanta moved the Odisha Information Commission and filed a complaint against Public Information Officer (PIO) Biswa Ranjan Naik of Tarbha NAC.
Meanwhile, Mahanta has also given a petition to the Collector cum District Magistrate Aboli Sunil Narvane urging her to direct the authorities to supply the details and punish the officials responsible for denying him his right to information under Section 20(I) of RTI Act.