Officials told to provide information on time

[karira]

As reported in manglorean.com on 21 August 2008:
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Officials told to provide information on time

MANGALORE, August 21, 2008: The Government officials of the most literate districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi refused to provide information sought by people under the Right to Information Act on various subjects. This was revealed during Karnataka Information Commissioner K K Misra's interaction with officials of two districts on Thursday.

But officials defended against their carelessness in providing the information sought by people under the Act. K.K. Misra, former Chief Secretary, heard grievances from the people and questioned the officials' functioning under the Act.

He heard 27 appeals, most of which were filed by Silvester D'Souza, who represents a NGO. Mr. D'Souza expressed his grievances against the local civic bodies, which he alleged had not provided the information on stormwater drains and drinking water projects. He was interacting with members of NGOs and students at St. Aloysius College here.

Mr. Tonse said that the officials have been denying the information on the number of tanks in the two districts.

One official apologised for the delay in providing the information sought from him while others were directed to furnish the information to petitioners free of cost.

Mr. Mishra told Chief Officer of Ullal Town Municipal Council M. Srinivas that delay in providing information was not good on the part of the official. He denounced the delay in furnishing the information by the chief officer of Sullia town panchayat Lohitaksha.

Mr. Mishra said stern action would be taken against officials, designated as public information officers, if they failed to provide the information sought by people within the stipulated 30 days under the Act. He said providing information was the personal responsibility of the PIOs. It was in the PIOs interest to personally pursue the applications Mr. Mishra said that he was not given powers to direct the officials to generate the information that was not available with them.

He said Karnataka Information Commission would suggest to the Government to evolve a system that help people to file applications for information under the Act through telephone.

Mr. Misra said that a call centre would be set up to receive the voice-based applications. The fee for it could be collected with the telephone bill payments of the caller, he said.

Fr. Richard Rego, Head, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of the college, was present.