Info under RTI Act hard to come by: Activists

Though the Right to Information (RTI) Act has proven to be one of the most powerful tools for citizens to obtain information that was all along denied under the garb of official secrecy, getting information under the law is not entirely hassle-free for many.

Government babus continue to harass RTI applicants by either calling them to inspect the files by themselves or by saying that the details are not available.

“One of the most common ways to deny information or harass the applicant is to call him/her to the office and ask him/her to inspect the documents instead of providing them copies of the same. They have done that many times to my applications,” said Anand Pargaonkar, an RTI applicant.

“They put several files that do not give you any clue where exactly the information is. They tell you to look for information without any help. In such a scenario, the exercise mostly never gives you any result,” added Pargaonkar.

While Pargaonkar refuses to go for any such inspections, some others make sure that they get the information.

“When the information is large, they say that we should come and inspect it. When we do not get the information, we ask them to show if the indexing is done properly. If they have a proper index in place, then I go ahead with the inspection,” said Chetan Kothari, another RTI activist.

Others like Sharad Yadav, who are used to getting responses like the information does not exist, make sure that they follow it up till they get it. “In most of my applications, they state that the information is not available.  In such cases, I go through the appeal route to ensure that I get the information,” said Yadav.