Dec. 13: City-based RTI activists oppose the government’s proposal to amend the RTI rules to restrict the application seeking information to 250 words and only one subject. At present, there’s no word cap and applicants can seek information on any number of subjects in a single application.

According to the proposed amendments, the DOPT, the nodal body for implementing the Act in the country, has said RTI applicants will have to pay the “actual amount” spent by public authority on hiring a machine or any other equipment, if any, to supply information.

The rules will be a modification of the present RTI (regulation of fee and cost) rules, 2005 and the Central information commission (appeal procedure) rules, 2005.

Activists not for changes in RTI rulesDecember 14th, 2010
DC


RTI activist V. Gopalakrishnan, who exposed the irregularities in TNHB allotments, said, “By restricting the application to 250 words, the government will make it difficult for the common man to seek information.”

He said the proposal was a clear attempt to create grey areas in a transparent law and allow scope for harassment of applicants.

Citing his own experience, Mr Gopalakrishnan said in one of his petitions seeking information on IPS officers who sought permission to purchase movable and immovable property, state information commissioner R. Perumalsamy dismissed the petition saying that the appellant should be considerate and reasonable in making request from any public authority, as the authority has to attend to their routine work besides the work under the RTI Act. “Now the new amendment would only help the PIOs to deny information to the applicant,” he said.