Provide RTI stamps as application fee: CIC

In an order that could make filing of Right To Information (RTI) applications easier, the Central Information Commission has asked the department of post to issue RTI stamps of Rs 10 denomination and open separate counters for accepting the applications at its 1.5 lakh post offices.

Updated on: Sep 5, 2013, 23:50:32 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In an order that could make filing of Right To Information (RTI) applications easier, the Central Information Commission has asked the department of post to issue RTI stamps of Rs 10 denomination and open separate counters for accepting the applications at its 1.5 lakh post offices.

A three-member bench headed by chief information commissioner Satyananda Mishra has issued a series of directions to the government, after complaints that public information officers were turning down applications on flimsy grounds.

An RTI applicant, Subhash Chandra Agarwal, was not allowed entry into home ministry’s office at Jaisalmer House on the ground that the payment for accessing the information sought can be deposited only at North Block office of the ministry.

Advocate RK Jain told the bench RTI applications were sometimes turned down because a postal order is not properly stamped or its value exceeds R10, the RTI fees.

He also said visitors were not informed by postal officials that they can also deposit RTI applications with post offices.
Agreeing that information seekers face problems in depositing RTI fees and photo-copying charges, the CIC made eight recommendations to the government for implementation.

The commission directed the postal department to ensure separate counters are set up at post offices for accepting RTI applications.
“The fees along with the application should be accepted at the same counter and in no case the applicant should be made to visit another counter for depositing the requisite fee,” the order reads.

It also wanted the department to issue RTI stamps of R10 denomination to ease RTI fee payment. “It would be a time and cost effective step,” the commission said.

In addition, the CIC asked the government to instruct all information officers that they will have to accept postal orders, demand drafts or banker cheques payable to their accounts officers.

“No instruction shall be returned by any officer of the public authority on the ground that it has not been drawn in the name of a particular officer,” the order said.

The commission also directed the information officers to accept RTI fees or copying charges in cash from applicants, as it was a cost effective mechanism. The government spends R22 on cashing a postal order of Rs 10.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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