AS Reported by John F Williams in Merinews.com on 20 July 2012

OUR MINISTRY of Law and Justice on 21.06.2005 introduced an Act of Parliament namely The Right To Information Act 2005 and the same became a part of The Gazette of India dated 15.06.2005 which empowered the General Public to seek any desired information, and circulars, etc., from the government.

It may be a matter of great surprise that all the state governments other than Haryana chargeRs.10 along with a RTI Application while it’sRs.50 in Haryana - the reason for chargingRs.40 more is best known to the state government.

Charging an extra amount ofRs.40 does not matter much but when it comes to performance, Gurgaon and Haryana stand no where, and are not at all up to the mark.


To quote, in July, 2011, repeat July 2011, we submitted four RTI applications in regard to seek information on water supply, road lights, municipal elections, road enforcement but none of them have been completed till date in spite of our appeal to the 1st Appellate Officer. None of the departments are serious in replying to the queries in a point wise manner.

Presently, they are now pending with the State Chief Information Officer, Haryana, Chandigarh, who have directed the respondent in each case to reply but the same is still pending. We are now called by the Chief information Officer to visit them on 4.1.2012 How far our visit is justified, you can well imagine.

Why should we go to Chandigarh and waste our money on travel, hotel, etc., while their non-performing officials will very well make it their Official Tour and claim DA/ TA. Isn’t it a case of causing sheer harassment to the public?

Such is the situation now that that the email reminders to the various departments can be bound in a book now. What is the use of introducing an Act that can’t be implemented or monitored? Unfortunately, it’s a complete wastage of the system and its machinery.