Circular comes to the rescue of RTI applicants left high and dry BMC officials

Seeking information from the civic body may become smoother. A recently issued circular from Brihanmumbai Municipal Commission (BMC) commissioner Ajoy Mehta, which is co-signed by other senior officials, warns civic officials to not make citizens run around for information sought under the RTI Act.

The warning has come following numerous complaints against civic officials for not providing information or instead asking RTI applicants to come and inspect the records themselves. It was also said that when applicants turn up for inspection, officials are either not present or provide them with a pile of papers with no indexation for finding relevant information from.

Objections were raised by the state information commission and RTI activists, after which the BMC issued the circular dated May 19, 2015.

It has directed civic staffers to not ask applicants to come and inspect files, when they have not asked for inspection, and give information in writing. Where information is voluminous, the applicant should be given a file with proper index and pages marked for his/her perusal, it adds.

To ensure that there is no ambiguity or shirking away from responsibility when calling applicants for inspection, officers have been told to provide time, ie give the applicant the option of three days when s/he can come and inspect files. The public information officer should provide his office contact number along with e-mail ID, the circular states, adding, in case he has to be out of office for some work, he has to assign the responsibility to someone else in his office so that the applicant does not suffer.

Member of BMC's Technical Advisory Committee Bhaskar Prabhu said, "We welcome the move by the corporation. We have been asking for this and it is result of our demand. The corporation saw the genuineness of our demand. This circular was released to facilitate inspection in a proper way."