Andhra Pradesh - Rajahmundry

‘Information Act is not being implemented’

Rajahmundry: Right to Information Act protection cell (Sahachara) has stated that the Information Act which has been introduced three years ago has not been implemented by many government departments either knowingly or unknowingly. It is alleged that some of the officers are not giving correct information. .

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday senior advocate and president of the Cell Muppalla Subba Rao , said there were four to five departments in Rajahmundry which were giving false information to the applicant.

The departments were - Government Hospitals, Intermediate Board RIO office, Endowments Department, Central Jail and Municipal office.

He said that some of the departments were charging heavy amount for giving information in print, which was not prescribed in the Act. This was to threaten the applicant not to ask information more in the future.

Subba Rao said the administration had failed in updating information about different departments in the district.

He quoted the examples from Police Department, in State Information Commissioners website three-town sub-inspector name mentioned as Murali Mohan and one-town SI name as Ambica Prasad. Actually both got transfers and one of them got promotion.

He recalled that some departments were not receiving applications sent through register post or Rs. 10 court fee stamp.

It showed that those officials were not having any knowledge about the Information Act.

He said that the ‘cell’ opened a ‘help desk’ which functions every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in his office. The cell secretary G.A. Bushabanbabu members Y. Ganesh, V.S.R. Kalyan, Leela Mohan and Deekshitula Subrahmanyam were present at the press conference.

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