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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | PIOs in govt depts not aware of RTI Act -Ishita Mishra

PIOs in govt depts not aware of RTI Act -Ishita Mishra

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published Published on Apr 17, 2013   modified Modified on Apr 17, 2013
-The Times of India


KANPUR: The Public Information Officers (PIOs) at various government departments in the city are having no knowledge of Right To Information Act (RTI), 2005 and its clauses. Majority of departments have non-law candidates serving the post of PIOs. In the absence of any proper guidance and workshops, these officials face problem in addressing the RTI queries and hence large number of them (RTIs) remain pending.

These findings came out in the survey conducted by the students of University of LEAD, England and New Law College, Pune who were on three day tour to the city from April 8 to 10. These students under their final year (graduation) assignments have chosen to study the RTI status in India.

"We have collected the information of pending RTIs from Central Information Commission. UP is having high number of pending RTIs. Kanpur and Lucknow being the prominent cities of the state were selected to conduct our survey," informed David, Phd student of LEAD University, England.

He added that during the survey of various government departments in Farukhabad, Amethi, rural areas of Kanpur and Kanpur city, it was found that all the departments were having their regular staff serving the post of PIOs. This according to him was the major reason of unfinished RTI queries in the state.The students also conducted the survey among the locals as well in the same areas where the residents of Farukhabad and Amethi were found least aware and concerned about RTI. In Unnao and Kanpur city people were seemed to be aware of the meaning but not even 2% of them have every used RTI.

The student team also distributed pamphlets to the locals for creating RTI awareness among masses.Rachel, another student said that she visited municipal department, health department, district collectorate, Kanpur Development Authority (KDA), KESCO, Police department, nursing department and many other and found similar mismanagement everywhere.

"In health department there was a doctor serving the post of PIO while in nursing department, a nurse was on the post of PIO. In KESCO and Municipal corporation, their regular clerks and employees were dealing with the RTI queries," informed Rachel.

She added that no one among any department's PIOs were having knowledge of RTI sections, rules and legislation.

"Not only this these officials are not even provided any guidance or workshop from government to enhance their skill and ability to deal with RTI queries," said Shreshta Nanda, student of New Law College, Pune who was accompanying David and Rachel in their survey.

Commenting on the non-availability of guidance and workshops, Dr AK Saxena, Additional Chief medical officer (CMO) and PIO of health department said that he has not been guided on how to deal with RTI. He added that he is answering large number of RTIs and legal advise has been provided by senior officials of the department.

Similar words were echoed by Vinay Rai, PIO of Kanpur Municipal Corporation (KMC) who is also the in-charge of Zone-5.

Concerned over the survey result of these students, the city based NGO working for RTI awareness decided to conduct workshops and guidance sessions for the PIOs of various government departments.

"We will take permission of district magistrate to conduct RTI awareness workshops of the government department PIOs. This will help the officials to understand the requirement of RTI and their responsibility towards the same as well," said Abhishek, member of Janta Soochna Kendra.


The Times of India, 17 April, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/PIOs-in-govt-depts-not-aware-of-RTI-Act/articleshow/19589143.cms


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