PWD demands Rs 22,600 for replying to RTI query

Activist says he got threatening calls from some 'police official'

The Public Works Department of the city government has sought a seemingly outlandish sum of Rs 22,600 for providing an activist with the information he has sought from it.

Manish Bhatnagar, RTI  (Right to Information) activist from Rohini, had sought information from the PWD about construction of science lab and eight rooms in a Delhi government-run school in Ambedkar Nagar three months ago.

“I got to know that the principal of the school had complained against the PWD contractor for discrepancies in the building. I filed an RTI and demanded every minute detail of construction of the building,” Manish told Deccan Herald.

The activist waited for more than a month for a reply from the PWD.  On July 27, the department sent him letter demanding Rs 22,600, apparently for printing or photocopying a 452-page report.

“The information you have sought is very vast and we have verified some 452 pages so far to send them to you. We request you to kindly deposit Rs 22,600 at the rate of Rs 50 per page, through pay order or demand draft to ‘In Favour of Executive Engineer, CBMD M-422, New Delhi’ at the earliest,” the department said in the letter in Hindi, a copy of which is with Deccan Herald.

On July 2, before the letter from the PWD, a person posing as some police personnel allegedly called Manish and threatened to teach him a lesson if he went ahead with the RTI query against the contractor.

Manish alleged that the accused is the same contractor against whom he had filed the RTI query.
“The person claimed that he is a policeman and accused me of the hilarious charge
of stealing confidential documents and attaching it with the RTI. I tried to call police, but twice no one picked up at the emergency number. Then I filed a written complaint through email to the Police Commissioner and gave details about the incident,” Manish said.

Manish has filed a complaint with the first appellate authority – Superintending Engineer, PWD, Sukhdev Vihar – and expressed his dissatisfaction with the department’s letter.

“If the department does not reply and police do not take action against the culprits, I will file a case in court. I have also filed a separate complaint against the PWD with the Central Information Commission for overcharging,” he said.

According to the rules of the RTI Act, 2005, the authorities can only charge Rs 2 per page for printing or photocopy of each A3 or A4 size paper.