[rti4empowerment] CONFINING TO ONE SUBJECT AND LIMITING WORDS IN RTI NOT DESIRABLE

CONFINING TO ONE SUBJECT AND LIMITING WORDS IN RTI NOT DESIRABLE M. K. Gupta             The Department of Pension and Training (DoPT) is putting hard labour to limit RTI application to 250 words and allowing queries only on one subject at a time.  This is against the Act passed by the Parliament, which is the Supreme law making body.  If these proposals are implemented, these should be challenged in the Court of Law.           Moreover, many persons are capable to ask for more information on one subject even in 250 words than the information they may ask in unlimited words.  Moreover, the PIO or the Public authority will decide and define that the RTI is not on more than one subject and this will be open to widespread misuse.  A citizen does not have the means that something pertaining to an office is on the one subject or not.  This provisions are be misused by opening many files on one subject by sub-dividing the subject or by assigning a subject to many officers and innovative ways can be invented by the Departments to do so.  In the Delhi Municipal Corporation in some areas, the cleanliness of roads is the responsibility of one Department of MCD but the cleaning the sewer is of another Department and the removal of Malwa (construction waste) comes under the purview of third Department.  Even the cleanliness of areas in front shops immediately after the shops in Dwarka, Delhi comes under the Delhi Development Authority. Though, the subject is one i.e. "Cleanliness" but an RTI application on sanitation may and will be rejected on this score.  This is only an example and such instances can be found in thousands.  On the contrary, this will burden the Public Authority more as the applicants will be compelled to file over one application if they have more than one query.   The RTI has brought some qualitative changes and transprancy in the working of the government's departments to an extent but such proposals will negate this.  As far as argument of long RTI application is concerned, there is already a provision in the RTI Act that the information solicited should not disprosposnately divert the resources of the Public Authority. Recently, the Delhi High Court has also put a fine of Rs.75,000/- on Mr. Nijhawan of Paardarsita for unreasonable queries and after that, no such case has come to the fore.   Govt. should once more reconsider before rejecting the recommendations of the National Advisory Council on this.