My first Magazine Skilletts_ January 2018 | Page 10

While responding to a request
expounding on the reason for
rejection of the application, it is
imperative that the sections of
RTI conditioning the rejection
is stated with special emphasis
rather than a fleeting excuse to
keep off the measures.
It is the foremost need of the
Public information officer to
thoroughly understand the ob-
jectives of the RTI Act.
i) To contain corruption.
ii) To ensure transparency and
accountability in administra-
tion
iii) To make the democracy
meaningful for the citizens
of India
large amount of calendar years that the officer may not
be able to provide in the specified time span, then the
applicant can be brought to the office and allowed to
collect the information in the presence of the officer,
paying a fixed amount for every extra time spent after
the allotted one hour. The applicant may take photo-
copies or photos of the documents with the permission
and under the surveillance of the public service Of-
ficer. If the applicant refuses to come to the office and
insists on a reply from the office, then the officer may
send a letter stating that the information asked for is
beyond the resources available to the officer and given
the case that the applicant refuses to come in person to
collect the details, there is no means to presently pro-
vide the information to the applicant. When such a re-
ply is sent out to the applicant, three particular points
should be highlighted or compulsorily be included:-
i) Reasons for rejection
ii) Applied author should be specified
iii) Time for preferring appeal
If the information available in the office is in the re-
gional language and the applicant doesn’t know the
language, the officer need only forward the document
as it is to the applicant and needn’t translate it for con-
venience.
The sections 8 and 9 lists a category of information
which can be excluded from the expanse and nuances
of the Act. For example a building plan, especially
plans drawn out and approved for the purpose of con-
structing a house is a document that needs to be exhib-
ited or approved at many places and any alteration
while constructing the building is prohibited and hence
if an RTI is filed to retrieve the plan of a residential
building it has to be given to the applicant. But, if the
applicant wanted the building plan of the central jail or
Skilletts— January– 2018
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