Plea for additional collector to be ‘deemed’ Public Information Officer

The Information Commission summoned the additional collector from Bandra office, called her out to be the ‘deemed’ Public Information Officer (PIO) under RTI Act in order to ensure that an applicant gets the official data on time.

The PIO, which is otherwise a junior officer, is responsible for giving quick relies to the RTI Act. The move came after an applicant was not given information after three PIOs tossed his RTI application from one office to another. The PIOs cited reasons of non-availability of official records on the matter.

Under RTI Act, an officer is termed as the ‘deemed’ PIO when her/his help is sought by the PIO to whom an RTI pleais addressed. However, the additional collector was made the ‘deemed’ PIO because the junior PIO (Nayab Tehsildar) failed to provide minutes of the meeting held in Additional Collector’s office.

State chief information commissioner, AK Jain, observed that as per the provisions of RTI Act, the additional collector is being considered as ‘deemed’ PIO because the concerned meeting took place in her office.