Information officers to reply to all RTI pleas: CIC

[karira]

Information officers to reply to all RTI pleas: CIC

New Delhi, Dec 05: The Central Information Commission has said that every designated information officer is duty- bound to reply within a stipulated time period to all the queries made by citizens.

The order came in the case of State Bank of Saurashtra -- an associate bank of country`s largest lender Sbi, the information officer of which denied reply to an RTI plea made by one Mohammed Rasulbhai saying that it was not necessary to respond to queries made by every citizen.

The officer also failed to reply to notices issued by the CIC, the order stated.

"It is noticed the public authority is not performing their role as per the RTI Act... The CPIO`s reply stating it was not necessary to reply all citizens letters, and the bank has kept the discretion to reply to letters written by citizens is not acceptable," information commissioner Padma Balasubramanian said in a recent order.

The cic has issued a show-cause notice to the officer asking as to why he was non-compliant towards his duties under the transparency law.

In the present case, the applicant had sought details pertaining to a property taken on lease by the bank from a person. The matter was brought before the CIC after the bank denied the information stating that the details were held by it in a fiduciary capacity.

The bank caught the ire of the commission after it failed to reply to notice issued by it, as also the CPIO`s failure to appear during the hearing.

Zee News - Information officers to reply to all RTI pleas: CIC

[vijendra singh]

Thousands of info have been denied by PIOs intentionally in past 2.5 years . What did the CIC do with those PIOs ? Shameful , the CIC never wanted to punish them at all . It shows that CIC says all just to show.& this is the only & only single reason why citizens are getting info most often after 12 -36 months.