Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) A right to information activist has filed a complaint with the Central Information Commission (CIC) against the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for allegedly not having a Central Public Information Officer (CPIO).
The activist alleged that by not appointing a CPIO, the civic agency has ignored the mandatory provisions of the Right to Information Act.

“Petitions addressed to CPIO sent through registered post to the MCD headquarters at Town Hall, Chandni Chowk, are returned with a stamp stating ‘no such post at MCD Town Hall (headquarters)’,” said Subhash Chandra Agarwal who filed the complaint with the CIC.

“This is a gross violation of the provisions of the transparency law,” he added.

According to Agarwal, the MCD used to entertain such petitions earlier but recently the authorities have started showing a disregard for RTI petitions.

“The Central Information Commission and the department of personnel and training (DoPT) should look into the matter, and take action against the competent authority in the MCD,” Agarwal said.

Action should also be taken against the MCD executive responsible for receiving RTI applications through post so that users of the transparency law are not harassed, he said.

Reacting to Agarwal’s allegation, a public information officer in MCD said: “Their are around 51 public information officers in the MCD and of these 20 are based at its headquarters.”

“A RTI applicant who needs any information can address his application to ‘public information officer’. The application will definitely be transferred to the concerned department,” he said.

“Our public information office is working very smoothly. If there is any problem related to collecting information from the public information office, it will be sorted out as soon as possible,” Delhi Mayor Prithvi Raj Sawhney told IANS.