Unusual Use of RTI Act:Interesting

Today I came across an interesting news in a Marathi newspaper.It was about an unusual RTI request made to Pune collector office by an applicant below poverty line.

Govt of Maharashtra has started citizen services delivery via single window through SETU scheme some 5 years back.These SETU center are located at each Tehsildar and collector offices across all districts of Maharashtra.Citizens can get the services and certificates like caste certificate,domicile certificate,income certificate etc etc through these centers.

This particular applicant in Pune filed an RTI to collector office Pune and requested the entire data and the supporting documentation of ALL SUCH SETU applications made by citizens at Pune SETU office in last 5 years!!!Please note that a typical such application for example one for caste certificate requires supporting documentation of at least 10 pages!..

In one day a typical SETU center receives minimum 50-60 such applications..and more when there is a heavy demand for certificates in June-August period when schools and colleges do ask for such certificates for admissions.So one can imagine ,what will be the number of pages collected in 5 years.....

So collector office calculated the cost of giving such information which came to Rs.13.5 Lakhs!!..However the real problem came when administartion filed the reply to the applicant.Generally,the applicant has to pay Rs 2 per page of information,but as per the RTI act,applicants below poverty line are to be provided the information free of cost...

So now collector office is in a fix and has requested for special aid to Govt for making this information available.

Such incidences also show that the act has been grossly misused and its effect is diluted.
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