Mumbai Mirror; Atul Chaturvedi; Friday, March 25, 2011,
BBMP has asked for the amount in its official replies to two applications seeking details about road works carried out at Rajarajeshwari Nagar.
An RTI activist was left flummoxed when the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) asked him to cough up Rs 75,000 if he wanted answers to questions he had posed to the civic body’s major road department in two separate RTI applications. In contravention of RTI laws, B K Ramesh, a resident of Rajajinagar, was not told how many pages the information he was seeking would comprise. Moreover, Ramesh, who had filed his applications on January 31 this year, was not furnished with the details within 30 days of filing his application, another lapse on the part of the BBMP. He received a reply only on March 14.
“I was shocked when I received this letter,” Ramesh told Bangalore Mirror. “But I’m ready to pay the money because I believe irregularities have taken place. The quality of work too is below standard. It seems to me that the officer had asked me to pay this huge amount in order to avoid furnishing the information. I will approach the Lokayukta and ask for a thorough inquiry.”
Under RTI laws, an applicant can only be asked to pay a maximum of Rs 2 (the photocopying charge) for an A4 page of information. But the BBMP justified the huge amount by suggesting that the information also contained photographs and the cost of printing each photograph was Rs 5. Now, assuming that 100 projects were carried out in that time and assuming the BBMP would have to provide five photographs for each project, it means Ramesh can expect more than 36,000 pages of information!
In his first RTI application, Ramesh had asked for details of the works undertaken by the BBMP’s major road department in 2009 and 2010 in Rajarajeshwari Nagar Zone. He sought a copy of the computerised list of contractors who participated in tender processes, where the earnest money paid by the contractors was deposited, details of the contractors who had won bids as well and the number of advertisements that were published in newspapers calling for tenders. He wanted this information to be backed up by photocopies of the documents.
Of the four questions Ramesh had posed, M Lokesh, the executive engineer of Rajarajeshwari Nagar, provided answer to only one. Ramesh was asked to pay Rs 50,000 if he wanted the rest of the information.
On January 31, Ramesh had filed another RTI application asking the BBMP to provide details of major road works taken up by assistant engineer Swami, who is on deputation from the PWD department since 2008. Ramesh sought details of the works completed, the names of the contractors who had undertaken the work, payment details and copies of the receipts. Ramesh was asked to pay Rs 25,000 for this information.
In his reply to this application, Lokesh wrote: “To provide all the details, we have to re-check all the documents. We need time for this. You can visit this office during office hours and details for the specified work will be made available. If you need all the details of all the works, then you have to deposit Rs 25,000.”
Ramesh said: “I had visited the office twice to find out the status of my application. “The officials there put me off by asking me to come on another day. Finally, in their written reply, I was asked to deposit Rs 75,000 in the bank located on the premises of the BBMP head office.”
Lokesh admitted that he had asked the applicant to deposit the money.
“It is true that he has asked for information and I had replied to his application in two separate letters asking him to deposit Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively,” Lokesh said. “The applicant had asked for photocopies of works done. It costs Rs 5 to print one page as some documents are accompanied by photographs. I asked him to deposit the money. I am ready to provide all the information that he wants and refund the excess money, if any, to him.” Asked why he had not mentioned the number of pages, Lokesh blamed it on a typing mistake. “I had specified the number of pages, based on which I had asked him to pay. If it’s not mentioned in the reply, it’s probably due to a mistake on the part of the typist. I’m quite sure I mentioned the number of pages.” But when BM asked him how many pages the information would comprise, Lokesh didn’t have an answer.
A K M Naik, state chief information commissioner, said: “The officer cannot ask an applicant to pay a sum without providing details of the number of pages. The applicant can approach the appellate authority and if he is still not satisfied, then he can approach the information commission.”
However, Shailesh Gandhi, central information commissioner, said Ramesh could approach the information commission directly. “The officer should have mentioned the number of pages. He could err on the side of caution by providing a higher estimate of the number of pages, but it has to be mentioned. The applicant can approach the state information commission directly without approaching the appellate authority. The information should have been provided within 30 days. If it’s not provided within that time, the information must be provided free of cost.”
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