Personal queries under RTI irk fire dept

Meghal Bhatt,a sound system recorderist residing at Danapith,said he has filed an application with 27 questions seeking details of fire officers’ service record from their date of joining,promotions and reasons for promotions. He has also demanded certificates of their fitness and experience. Bhatt admitted he has little to do with the Fire department and that he filed the application just for fun.

Fire officers admit that such unnecessary and unrelated RTI queries tax their limited resources,as they are already facing a staff crunch. Chief Fire Officer M S Dastoor said: “There is a pile of RTI application asking personal questions. Officers from the office of superintendent to typists are busy only giving information to such applicants. The questions are useless and have no relevance to the public.”

On questions about the family members and detailed address,he said,“How can we declare our residential number,mention how many kids we have,profiles of our wife… Such RTI applications are more of a nuisance.”

State Chief Information Commissioner R N Das said that many people file RTI applications to harass government officers,and that the Public Information Officer (PIO) should reject such applications. “Every query need not necessarily be replied. Even the citizens should show some seriousness towards the ‘actual’ use of the RTI Act.”

He added that the Act has a clause of penalty and even actions against PIO for processing such applications. “In Gujarat,people even demand for enquiry or a probe and then ask for the result of the investigation,which is not allowed. Moreover,even marking the RTI to various departments is also not permitted; only a particular authority can be addressed to,” said Das.