The Right to Information Act came into force on October 12 this year. The provisions of the Act have made the system accountable for corruption and inefficiency. But the Act is also meeting obstructions. |
In this three-part series, Business Standard looks at the RTI Act at work |
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Civil society may have won a historic battle with the enactment of the Right to Information Act, but the well-entrenched bureaucracy does not seem to have given up yet. By default or by design, the officialdom in different states and central government departments has created impediments, making it difficult for people to exercise their rights under this Act. |
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For instance, Orissa government procedures can hold any information seeker liable for "any damage caused to public property in the course of giving any information in the form of samples of materials". |
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Ask the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) what this clause can mean to the people in Orissa. One person had recently sought information about the number of vehicles the GDA owned. The authority was reported to have stated in its reply that the applicant would be held liable for any "injury or damage" to vehicles, workers or officials of the GDA. |
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According to Shailesh Gandhi, working committee member of the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI), who has taken it up with the Orissa government, "penalising applicants for damage appears to be designed to overawe applicants and provide a handle to officials to harass citizens who ask inconvenient questions". |
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The procedures established by the Gujarat government tell applicants that if they belong to the below-poverty-line category, information given to them shall not be used for any other purpose. The message is simple""since BPL category applicants are not charged for information, they cannot use it the way they want. |
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These riders by Orissa and Gujarat government are in complete contravention of the RTI Act. But it is not just the state governments, which are violating the Act in letter and spirit. |
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The application form provided on the official website of the ministry of home affairs requires a photocopy of "proof of residence (ration card/ voter's card/passport/driving license)" from an applicant. |
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Section 6(2) of the RTI Act categorically states that an applicant asking for information shall "not be required to give any reason for requesting the information or any other personal details ...." |
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The Orissa government has gone a step further. The application format designed by it says an applicant will be given information only after a competent authority is satisfied with the identity of the information seeker. There is no such provision in the RTI Act and this can only become a tool for harassing applicants. |
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BJP leader Vijay Goel had earlier raised the issue of the Delhi Development Authority asking applicants to specify reasons for seeking information. He had written to the Central Information Commission about it but the commission could not assist in the matter. |
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"Goel wrote to us about it but we cannot do anything unless somebody comes in appeal against it to us," Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah told Business Standard. |
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There are many other glitches in the implementation of the RTI Act. For instance, there are multiple agencies in government departments that are supposed to provide information. |
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There was a bunch of public information officers (PIOs) in departments ""40 in the department of personnel & training, for instance ""and information seekers had to run around in search of the PIO who was dealing with that particular information, said Nikhil Dey of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan. |
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