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Democratic Indian (n/a)     13 December 2010

Word limit to RTI plea will be a good disciplining tool: CIC

Please submit your strong and reasonable comments at usrti-dovt@nic.in till December 27 oppossing these so called "Rules" to limit your application to only 250 words and single subject. Also send this message to as many people as possible.

NEW DELHI: RTI applications may now be limited to 250 words and to only one topic if the rules for processing of such applications suggested by the department of personnel may find their way through.

According to proposed amendments in the RTI rules, the DoPT, nodal body for implementing the Act in the country, has said each application will be limited to 250 words excluding the address of the public authority and applicant. It will also be limited to only one subject matter.

Even more surprising is the fact that RTI applicants will have to pay the "actual amount" spent by public authority on hiring a machine or any other equipment, if any, to supply information.

The rules will be a modification of the present RTI (regulation of fee and cost) rules, 2005 and the central information commission (appeal procedure) rules, 2005.

The DoPT has sought the comments on these changes from public on email id "usrti-dovt@nic.in" by December 27, 2010.


The rules have resulted in furore among RTI activists who say that they will be of no good to semi-literate and illiterate people who are the main users of the law.

"Though comments being sought from civil society though in accordance with Section 4(1)(c) of the RTI Act, however this notification gets limited to only those who are net friendly and that too only two weeks time given," commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra said.

He said people from rural areas who do not have internet access will be devoid of sending their views on the subject.

"Putting a word limit of 250 words will obstruct the Right to Information. There was very minute number of people who misused the provisions of RTI applications by asking large number of questions but there are enough powers to reject such applications. There was no need for such limits on word usage," said Subhash Agrawal, another RTI activist.

"The new rules widen the ambit of discretionary use by the concerned public information officer who can reject the applications summarily," Venkatesh Nayak of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said.

He asked how can the government set a limit of words especially when same set of questions in different languages will require different word usage.

He also said legally the process of RTI starts when application is submitted to a PIO. "The state cannot dictate the user to set word limit before process starts. Instead the CPIO should be empowered to ask the appellant to prioritise the information, in case of voluminous information." he said.




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 7 Replies

gajendra soni (thelkadih)     14 December 2010

250 word me RTI ke Application  ko bandhana sahi nahi hai. RTI ka main  aim corruption ko mitana hai . parantu  office me corrapution ki suchana mange jane par  gopniy hai, deprtmental inquriy chal rahi hai, photocopy machine nahi hai , kharab hai. etc many pupe ke bahane bana kar corrpution ko bada rahe hai. imandar officer nirash ho kar beiman office ke hatho ki kathputali ban jate  hai aur iska aam janta ko nuksan hota hai. atav ye rule lagu na kiye jave. gajendra soni village thelkadih

gajendra soni (thelkadih)     14 December 2010

250  ka RTI application limit  rong hai .  Gajendra soni village thelkadih dist rajandgaon

Bhartiya No. 1 (Nationalist)     15 December 2010

thanks for the info,

It is clever move of govt. to curtail the RTI act, instead of that they may completely repeal the act.

On the other hand Bihar is passing Right to Service Bill for the benefit of the people. after that getting service from govt. dept will become right of the public.

Anil Agrawal (Retired)     17 December 2010

Wait. RTI was rushed through in euphoria. That is over. It won't be diluted. It might be repealed altogether. The infn recd under RTI is revealing too many scams. Adarsh society scam was the result of RTI. Ashok Chavan had to go.

This is not acceptable. Corruption is a way of life with govts and they can't survive without it. See the fun that is going on in Karnataka. The CM says he allotted govt lands to his kith and kin because previous CMs had done so. In govt deptts, precedents are the Bible. Therefore, CM is right. He followed in the footsteps of his predecessors.

Corrupt bur'eaucrats being fined 25000 is chicken feed. They are minting crores.

ravi shankar sharma (advocate)     17 December 2010

thanks for this valuable information i feel that when RTI was launched the govt. was thinking either the citizen will never show such kind of awareness or only launched to handle the political situations etc. at the time of enactmet as the govt. is now trying to limit it as much as possible. this shows that govt. has not given the hearty welcome to the ACT but the citizen had given the same. this is unfortunate and truly unwarranted to limit it to 250 words and its a foul play on the part of the Govt. we all must condemn it and altogether fight for saving this prestigious tool in the democracy of india. R S Sharma star_legaleagle_2007@yahoo.co.in

(Guest)

What is latest about it ? Pl update us.

Thanks

raj kumar ji (LAW STUDENT )     20 July 2011

NO THIS RULE IS NOT A GOOD INFORMATION CAN NOT BE BOUND IN WORD LIMIT .


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