Citizens and RTI activists have a reason to cheer. Now, they can save thousands of rupees which they paid as fee to get “readily available” information under the RTI Act.
Citizens and RTI activists have a reason to cheer. Now, they can save thousands of rupees which they paid as fee to get “readily available” information under the RTI Act. According to the Information Commission, they will get the information for Rs2 per page, as stipulated in the act.
Several RTI applicants had complained that they were made to pay through their nose, particularly while seeking information from BMC’s property-related departments, such as assessment. Also, officers often did not sign or attest papers while giving information. When they were asked to sign on the documents, they used to ask applicants to pay as per the BMC rate card which existed before the RTI Act came into existence. The practice continued despite the fact that the RTI Act has a superseding effect on all prior rules.
For example, certified copies were charged at Rs230 per property in assessment department. So even if it was pointing out a property or furnishing details on inspection extract, the assessment department charged Rs230 for it. These reports generally did not exceed one page.
If the applicant had to ask property details or building details for more than one property, they would pay in thousands. Apart from this, the inspection of voluminous information that is free for the first hour and Rs5 for every 15 minutes was being charged Rs150 per hour.
The order from Information Commission comes after a sustained battle of over one and half years by an NGO, Mahiti Adhikar Manch, and some active citizens. Four RTIs related to the same issue were clubbed for a hearing. The state chief information commissioner, Dr Suresh Joshi, who heard the matter in March 2009, passed order dated July 9, 2010, after a series of meetings with additional municipal commissioners.
Although the state prided in being the first to bring RTI, even before the central government, it’s the Central Act that has clearer rules when disbursing information. The ambiguity was in section 4 (1) (A) (a) and (b) of the rules formed by state where officers were scuttling and fooling applicants.
The rules in state divided information into two categories. Officers cited section 4 (1) (A) (a) which stated: “When the department concerned has already fixed the price of some documents, mats, etc, the price so fixed plus postal charges have to be paid. Section 4 (1) (A) (b), which is consistent with the Central rules states that all ‘readily available’ documents be given at Rs2 per page.
Information commissioner’s order clarifies the scope of sub section (b) so that more and more information can be given attested and signed by the PIO at Rs2 per page.
Bhaskar Prabhu, one of the applicants, said: “Sometimes, the officers concerned refused to attest the RTI document, which made the legitimacy of the document questionable. At the same time, the state needs to check if the old ways of certification is required as RTI’s sole purpose is to give authentic trustworthy information to public.”
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