JOIN USCIC to simplify info highway
The Central Information Commission (CIC) has favoured adoption of a “user-friendly” method of providing reply to an application, seeking a number of queries under the Right to Information (RTI) Act in one single communication as it would be easier for the information seeker and also to help in avoiding delays.
Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra told the department of personnel and training (DoPT), the nodal department to implement the transparency law, to devise ways for furnishing answers in a single response.
“We hope that the department would devise ways by which information sought in a single RTI application is provided in a single communication and not in a number of separate replies. After all, the department is a single public authority and not a conglomerate of many public authorities,” the panel said.
The commission, while hearing an appeal filed by V K Garg, a Delhi-resident, noted that he had made some seven queries relating to a variety of information ranging from the official directory to the Whistleblowers Act to the list of all the Information Commissions in the country.
“Although the application had been preferred to the Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the DoPT, the reply to the various queries was given by a number of CPIOs in separate communications. This is not a very user-friendly way of responding to the RTI requests.”
“It would be helpful if the entire information sought in one single RTI application from one single public authority, as in this case, is compiled together and sent in a single communication, point wise. By splitting individual queries among a number of CPIOs and then making them respond separately can lead to delays and also incomprehension for the information seeker,” the Commission said, disposing off the appeal.