Chennai: The tug of war between government officials and RTI activists continues in greater Chennai and an agitated RTI activist has now petitioned State Information Commission crying foul over a RTI reply given by a Chennai corporation official.
The RTI applicant, R. Natarajan of Nandanam, had also petitioned Governor K. Rosaiah and the chief secretary alleging that a corporation official has courted controversy by furnishing false information defeating the purpose of RTI.
In his complaint, the RTI applicant said as a social activist he was concerned about poor maintenance of a corporation park and a road adjacent to posh De Monte Colony and demanded a RTI reply asking the custodian department that is responsible for the maintenance of the approach road and the park. The corporation executive engineer of Zone IX, who is also the PIO, has admitted that the approach road leading to De Monte Colony is a private road and the park is opened for public between 5 am and 9 pm.
This reply has raised several queries that if it was a private road why the corporation has laid streetlights and maintaining the same along with a park located inside the private party. There is no clarity in the replies furnished and the officers should be sensitised as the details they provide are treated as official data, Natarajan said.
“The provisions of RTI Act remains unknown to many, including RTI activists. The errors committed by PIOs such as wrong interpretation of questions will lead only to second appeals wasting every one’s time. Those providing irrelevant data should be asked to explain the logic behind for such vague replies” said RTI activist V Santhanam.
“I have availed myself more than a dozen RTI responses from corporation officials in the past one year and most of the replies do not march the questions raised. The objective of RTI is to ensure transparency, but officials, whether it is revenue, corporation or electricity board, for some reason provide unrelated data”, said RTI activist Gopalakrishnan of K K Nagar.
