Tea Board asks RTI applicant to pay Rs 11 lakh

Tea Board asks RTI applicant to pay Rs 11 lakh
Says Info-Seeker Will Have To Shell Out Rs 2 For Each Of The 5.5 Lakh Pages The Reply Would Run Into
Jeeva TNN
Chennai: Bureaucrats seem to be setting new standards in replying to RTI applications. In what can be a record of sorts, the Tea Board, a wing of the Union ministry of commerce and industry, has demanded Rs 11 lakh from an RTI applicant to provide information he has asked for. The applicant, K K Raman, a resident of Thudiyalur in Coimbatore, wanted details of loans and subsidies, sanctioned as well as rejected, for small tea-growers by the board since 2000. He also asked for details of movable and immovable properties of the board's officials in the last nine years. Raman, in his application dated November 12, 2008, posed 31 queries which also included basic information like details of loan and subsidy schemes, eligibility criteria and documents required for applying for loans and subsidies. In his reply on the December 3, board's executive director R D Nazeem said the information sought for by the applicant would run into 60,000 files containing approximately 5.5 lakh pages. Contending that as per section 7 (3) (a) of the RTI Act, the board could charge Rs 2 per page to be created or xeroxed, Nazeem said the applicant would have to pay Rs 11 lakh and only after that his RTI application would be processed. The official went on to add that the applicant should also fully bear the travelling allowance, dearness allowance, transportation charges of documents and overtime wages for the employees who would be deputed to provide the information. Since some of the information had to be collected from documents at the board's offices in Kochi, Chennai and Kolkata, the applicant would have to bear the expenses of the officials who are deputed for that purpose, Nazeem added. The applicant was obviously stunned by the board's reply and is now preparing an appeal challenging it. "I wanted the information only because I suspect a lot of irregularities in the board's functioning. I filed the application to know the truth. But the condition laid down by the board to answer my queries strengthens my suspicion," Raman told TOI. Arguing that the board's demand was totally against the provisions of the RTI Act, he said: "Apart from asking such a huge amount towards creation or photocopying the documents, on what authority are they asking me to bear the TA, DA, overtime wages of Tea Board employees and cost of transportation of documents."