BDO NAMTHANG THINKS RTI IS A HARRESHMENT

SANJAY AGARWAL-RANGPO -23RD JUNE11

BDO namthang cum SPIO feels the RTI act is a harassment for him .according to the news Mr. madan tamang of palitam busti south Sikkim namthang has asked for some information pertaining to the details of total number of “roof harvesting and community tank” passed by t he department for ratey pani constituency under “national rural water drinking programme” on 23rd April to the SPIO Namchi who is the DDO (south).the SPIO it is seen on the same date transferred the application to the ASPIO cum BDO namthang. Under section 5(4) of the RTI act as the subject matter is directly connection to his area and where all the information is available. But the complainant not received the information in the time period i.e. 22nd may and hence forth complaint under section 18(1) of the rti act b to the commission on 24th may11.after going through the complaint the chief information commission has fixed the date for hearing on 17th June and both party must have to attend in the hearing. On 17th June both party was attend before the commision.on behalf of madan tamang Mr. ganga ram rai of mamring south Sikkim was present on the said hearing.

During the hearing it was ascertained that the information sought by the complaint was despatched on 16th may for which ASPIO has produced the post office receipt but the complainant asked that he has received this information on 31st may only. The complaint was filed when the information was in the transit. in the meantime the ASPIO cum BDO namthang has asked the complainant to come to his office and do the Xerox and collect the information which is wrong, instead the SPIO could have asked the complainant to deposit the amount of fees under rti head and collect the information when it is within the time frame of 30 days. This he has directed to do so in future but for now he has been asked to provide information free of cost within 10 days. In other hand the CIC has ordered the ASPIO not to send letters or information as BDO but under the seal of SPIO/ASPIO.as RTI does not recognised US/DS/BDO/DDO etc but only SPIO or ASPIO.this may be borne in mind in future correspondence.

The SPIO complained that he is facing lot of harassment as the complainant is asking all these information especially when the works are going on smoothly. the SPIO has been explained that the job of SPIO is to provide information sought for by the citizens and should not be taken as harreshment.this is the objective of RTI that any information sought by the citizens it should be provide and that is it.