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| PIOs loot RTI applicants in the name of fee | | |
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Aug 22: There are lot of RTI applicants who complain that Public Information Officers (PIO's) are charging exorbitant fees from them during seeking of Information. It has become a norm for the Public Information Officers by asking RTI applicants to deposit photocopying fees which information seekers cannot afford. Recently a senior citizen hailing from Verinag in South Kashmir was asked to pay around Rs 1000 by the PIO of Power Department for enabling him to get some details under RTI Act. He told media persons that officer from Power Development Department (PDD) has told him to deposit exorbitant fees. The senior citizen intended to seek some information from the PDD which is of public interest but when he was asked to pay such a huge amount has demoralized him.
The applicant said the concerned PIO (Executive Engineer of PDD ) demanded Rs 10 per copy which is not fair.
It was not at all a shock to learn this because people come across dozens of such cases wherein public authorities demand hefty charges against providing the information under RTI Act.
In another case a caller from Tangmarg in North Kashmir told Early Times that the PIO of a particular department is charging Rs 3500 without making any calculations. He was not told for how many pages he had to pay Rs 3500 , the only thing he was informed in writing was to pay photocopying fees @ Rs 10 / copy ?
Early Times has repeatedly made clear that RTI application fees has been slashed from Rs 50 to Rs 10 and the photocopying fees has been reduced from Rs 10 to Rs 2 per copy almost three years back when the J&K RTI Rules 2010 were repealed by J&K Government on August 30th 2012 under SRO 279.
The activists have been severely criticizing the Government's move of repealing J&K RTI Rules 2010 three years back, but for the information of RTI users , applicants and our esteemed readers the reduction of application and photocopying fees is the only positive thing that exists in the present RTI Rules ie J&K RTI Rules 2012.
It is a matter of serious concern that almost 3 years have elapsed since the RTI fees was slashed in J&K , the Government officers (PIO's) keep demanding high fees from the applicants. The exorbitant fees is usually charged in far flung areas where people are ignorant about RTI and this is done to demoralize the RTI users / information seekers.
Public Information Officers (PIO's) cannot be blamed for charging\ exorbitant fees under RTI Act deliberately as majority of them have not being trained by J&K Government. Even if some PIO's who got some basic training in past vis a vis dealing with RTI applications , majority of them are not designated PIO's as on date, as most of them got promoted or have retired from Government service. For example if some KAS officer was posted as Deputy Director in some directorate he usually used to be the designated PIO as well in the same office .
After a year or so this officer gets transferred or promoted and is posted as Joint Director or Additional Secretary to Government , he is no more a PIO. The new Deputy Director posted at his / her place hasn't undergone any RTI training so he keeps doing mistakes while dealing with RTI applications.
Under Section 23 of State RTI Act the Government of Jammu & Kashmir is under legal obligation to train the general public about the provisions Right to Information Act (RTI). In addition to it the Government has to train its officers also especially the designated PIO's. Section 23 (d) of J&K RTI Act 209 reads as "Government may to the extent of availability of financial and other resources train PIO's of public authorities and produce relevant training materials for use of public authorities themselves". The Central Government's Department of Personnel and Trainings (DoPT) has large amount of funds available for RTI trainings and programmes. |
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