Chennai: These days state government officials seem to have come up with a new way to get rid of overflowing Right to Information Act (RTI) applications. They flood the applicants with papers from various departments under their jurisdiction, giving the applicant an illusion that he has received the answer to his query which is actually no way even close to the relevant information.
Applicants complain that though the department where the application is sent has the required data, but still they send the queries to different departments and gather the information collected from different zones at different times making it difficult to figure out the actual response sought for.
As stated by the Times of India daily, an RTI activist, R Natarajan said, “When I collate the data, I find myself staring at a sheet of paper with several gaps. They send us a whole lot of data on different papers, but the relevant information is missing. Most departments don't want to be transparent.”
For example, he said that an application to the corporation's Public Information Officer is forwarded to 15 different zones half of whom don't even bother to reply.
Former central chief information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi stated that such transfer of RTI applications if the information is available with the original department is illegal.
He said, “PIOs can transfer applications only if they don't have consolidated information. The unnecessary transfer of applications is a waste of time and money for applicants as well as for the government. TNSIC should impose penalty on such officers.”
Some other activists even complain of TNSICs (Tamil Nadu State Information Commission) behavior and say that it rarely acts against errant PIOs.
Another RTI activist said, “PIOs are least bothered to respond to RTI applications as they know they will never be punished.”
The daily states that many PIOs use complicated language and intentionally confuse matters to discourage applicants and for this, they cite staff shortage, lack of records and pressure from higher officials as reasons of delay.
Reportedly, in November 2014, the Supreme Court asked the Centre and all the states to take a decision on a PIL seeking setting up of a mechanism to provide information under the RTI Act through 'electronic' means within three weeks. The PIL also sought directions to the states and others for constituting 'call centre as voice facilitation centre for filing RTI applications and appeals over the phone' on the lines of action taken by Bihar government.
