who will pay??

[chakrapani12]

I am chakrapani Himanshu, journalist by profession. I wamt to know that- If I want any information fron a PIO he can charge 2 Rs./- per page. But Question is that who shoud pay the charge for postage and stamp etc. the PIO or the aplicant? ( For that document which will be posted to the applicant by the PIO) what are the Bihar government's rule says regarding this?
Thanx!!!
chakrapani

[snkmoorthy]

the concerned department would pay for the postage; there is no provision to charge the applicant in this regard

[jiwateshwar]

It actually depends from state to state as to who has to pay for the postal charges. In some states the postal charge is taken care of by the PA while in others the applicant has to pay for postal charges. Since you have not informed us as to which Pa of which state your matter is concerned with, I would assume that it has more to do with some PA in Bihar itself.

Under teh above assumptions I would like to ask you to see Page 34 of the linked document. http://gov.bih.nic.in/Governance/RTI...nformation.pdf

This is the format through which the PIO has to convey details of payment towards cost of information.

Now if you were to see Page 3 and section 3(vi) of the following document http://www.amritsarcorp.com/RTI/RTI_ACT.PDF

It becomes clear that in Punjab one has to pay the cost of postal charges depending on ones choice between registered post, speed post or ordinary post. However, that does not seem to be the case in Bihar as the applicant is not allowed to choose between modes of postage and nothing as such is part of the form in which cost of information or the cost to be remitted to the PA is intimated to the applicant. Thus in your case, the CPIO has to pay the cost of postage.

To be Ignored:- The matter shall ofcourse take a totally different turn if the CPIOs in Bihar were to refuse posting of information as the act does not seem to have any provisions for that.