Now, match-maker RTI

Source:Yahoo India News:Sun, May 23

New Delhi, May 23 -- The days of parents of eligible girls visiting a prospective groom's office to find out about his salary and job profile are over. 'Informed' parents have now befriended the Right to Information Act to seek such details.

The RTI cell of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) recently received some queries seeking details about the job profiles and salaries of its bachelor employees' for matrimonial purposes.

Another RTI application received by the DMRC a few days ago sought information about the salary of the employee that is reflected in the pay slip, his security deposit, provident fund details, job profile, service record, etc.

"Some applicants also ask whether the employee has shown himself as married or single," said a DMRC official adding that such queries are apparently for matrimonial purposes.

DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dayal said, "We provide personal details such as an employee's salary but with the consent of the employee concerned."

Delhi Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, however, said that pay details of a government employee cannot be treated as personal information and should be made available in the public domain. "Sometimes pay details may be sought for matrimonial purposes or for other purpose. Whatever be the reason, Public Information Officers (PIO) should provide such details to the applicants," he added.

A few months ago Shivkumari Kashyap, a Chhattisgarh resident, had sought pay particulars of her husband Baldev Singh, an employee of South East Central (SEC) Railway, who got married for the second time. She suspected that Singh had entered the name of his second wife in his service book and used the RTI route to gather details

Urban development dept tops RTI query chart

Souce:Tanaji Khot,pune Mirror,  Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 11:55:17 PM

A fine of Rs 26,57651 was imposed last year on government officials by  Maharashtra State Information Commission (SIC) for their failure to provide satisfactory  responses  and even any reply to RTI applications. 

However, the use of RTI Act is gaining ground rapidly in Maharashtra, and the state is in the forefront of sourcing information by availing of the provisions of the transparency act.

In 2009 alone 4,40,728 RTI queries  were received by various authorities in the state. This is more than the number of RTI applications received by various bodies under the central government.

Last year the central government bodies received about 350,000 lakh applications. The SIC had revealed the data about RTI in its annual report recently. 

As per this  report, the Urban Development department has received the highest number of RTI applications. It received 1,25,418  RTI applications. Of these 1,20,832 applications received a response and 855 were rejected. The department has 13,965 applications pending.

As Maharashtra is the top-ranking state in terms of urbanisation in the country, it boasts of high urban-related activities,  investments and development work. This partly explains why the Urban Development department has attracted the largest share of RTI queries in the state.

Other departments that received a high number of RTI queries were the Revenue Department, the Home Department and the Rural Development Department. They received 72,393, 45,000 and 43,000 applications respectively.

TOPS NATIONAL CHARTS
The SIC report indicates that Maharashtra leads other states in the country in the number of RTI applications.
About  90% of the RTI applications received in the state were cleared, as per the report.  Information was provided to  4,39,061 applicants in 2009.
Hearing through Videoconferencing
To ensure that applications and appeals are resolved without any delay, the SIC has introduced videoconferencing. In Pune region SIC has cleared 274 cases through videoconferencing. 

While 390 cases were resolved in Aurangabad region through this facility, 173 and  76 cases cases were settled by way of videoconferencing in Nagpur and Amravati regions respectively