‘Comply with RTI provisions’

'Comply with RTI provisions'
TNN 16 November 2009, 08:51pm IST

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ludhiana/Comply-with-RTI-provisions/articleshow/5233319.cms

LUDHIANA: Detailed discussion took place at a seminar organized by
municipal corporation (MC) to make its officers aware of the ambit of
Right To Information (RTI) Act on Monday. In the seminar that was
organized following orders of state information commission (SIC), MC
officers said people had been harassing them on pretext of RTI.

According to information, in a case filed by RTI activist Rohit
Sabharwal, state information commissioner Surinder Singh had asserted
that the pendency of cases brought out was alarmingly high. It seemed
no efforts were being made by the PIO/APIOs and first appellate
authority of MC to deal with pending RTI applications. He had directed
MC commissioner AK Sinha to take necessary action to organize a
seminar for training PIOs, APIOs and first appellant authority of MC
with the help of NGOs, adding that compliance of orders be intimated
to the commission within a month.

Acting on the orders, MC held a seminar at zone-D, in which Dr
Supinder Kaur, senior lecturer, law PU regional centre, addressed MC
officers to apprise them of the main provisions of the Act. The
lecturer told them how to deal with applications and come out with a
reply within the stipulated time period. In the seminar in which
additional commissioner Kanwalpreet Kaur Brar, joint commissioner
Mahinder Pal Gupta, RTI activists Rohit Sabharwal, Saurabh Gupta and
Sham Lal Saini also took part, the lecturer talked about the needs and
ambit of RTI Act.

Taking part in the seminar, MC officers, especially the PIO and APIOs,
rued that people harassed them to get information for their vested
interest. However, RTI activists present on the spot said the Act had
empowered residents with the power to check working of government
departments. They also said that rather than finding faults in the
Act, MC officers should try to comply with its provisions in a proper
manner so that people could benefit from it.

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