Make smartest employee of dept PIO: Rupen Deol Bajaj
Express News Service
Tags : seminars, PIO
Posted: Wednesday, Nov 11, 2009 at 0259 hrs
Chandigarh
The most responsible person in a department should be made the Public
Information Officer (PIO) and not the most incompetent one, as was the
practice. This was the consensus that emerged at a seminar organised
by Direct Taxes Regional Training Institute on the 'RTI Act: The
Progress So Far and the Road Ahead' on Tuesday.
Giving an instance, former Chief Information Commissioner of Punjab
Rajan Kashyap said during his tenure he discovered that the Punjab
Police was most efficient in giving information as the PIOs in all
districts were SSPs and the first appellate authority was the ADGP.
"Having a senior officer as the PIO ensures that the information is
provided on time," he said.
Punjab State Information Commissioner Rupan Deol Bajaj said, "Locate
the smartest person in your office and depute him as the PIO. It has
been seen that some offices, considering the RTI Act as a burden, were
appointing the most incompetent employee to the post."
Asserting that the RTI Act is a two-way street, she said, "An
efficient PIO will not only provide correct information to the
applicant, but while compiling data will also find out lacunae in the
functioning of the department and report it to the higher authorities.
Sometimes information sought may be an eye-opener for the department."
Arvind Kejriwal, Ramon Magsaysay award winner and social activist,
said the bureaucracy needs to change its mindset. "Corrupt officials
not giving information is understood. But it's the honest ones who
resist the most, as they feel that why should they give information
when they have done no wrong. This age-old mentality needs to change."
MISUSE OF THE LAW
Drawing the attention of experts towards the misuse of the Act, Chief
Commissioner of Income Tax P K Chopra said some people send in RTI
applications daily, giving no time to the officer to attend to his
office. Qaiser Shamim, an IRS officer, said a few days ago, his office
received a letter by a person declaring his assets on which he has
never paid income tax. "Interestingly, the last line in the letter
said in a threatening tone that soon an RTI application would be
filed," he said, adding that some miscreants have been using RTI to
stop officers from taking action against them.
SIC Rupan Deol Bajaj appealed to the people not to use the Act to test
the system, and asked the information commissions to take an overall
view of the cases. She said the new threat being heard in the
government corridors was, "RTI paa doonga (I will file an RTI
application). Citizens should ask for only that information, which is
humanly possible to compile in 30 days."
news end
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