Right to Information Act needs to be people-friend

Vijay Times, Sept 20

B D Narayankar

Bangalore: There have been representations galore urging the government to review the draft rules framed under the recentlypassed Right to Information Act. Letters to the effect have been flooding the office of Department for Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DP AR). The draft rules were published on Sept 2. Many social activists have their objections listed and would soon meet officials concerned. Several fora have also sought reconsideration of the rules, especially the one relating to payment of Rs 100 by way of fee with application for information. ’’The Act is good. But the rules discourage economically poor to get the benefits of Right to Information Act. The failure of the government to provide easy means of securing information has made the Act unfriendly ," according to a social activist. Though the official explanation is that levying of fee is to check bogus applications, many find no reason in government proposing Rs 5 per page of information on A4 size paper , Rs 25 per floppy along with a replacement floppy and Rs 25 per CD along with a replacement CD . According to DP AR under secretary (’Janaspandana’ cell) K R Badiger , persons belonging to below poverty line (BPL) could claim exemption from payment of fees. No fee had been proposed in the case of maps, plans, reports, partial records and technical data. The government had left it to the information officers to fix reasonable fees. Social activists have pointed out number of areas which the rules had not covered. For instance, rules do not provide details of form in which information is to be applied for nor do they elaborate procedure of payment, processing of application and disposal of appeals. However , a good thing the government had done was to appoint an experienced bureaucrat like K K Mishra as chief information commissioner in the State to implement the Act, said the activists. Badiger lauded the Act for arming the chief information commissioner with powers to impose fine of Rs 250 per day on officials delaying information sought beyond 30 days.