The Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) and first appellate authority, officials meant for providing information under the Right to Information Act, 2005 at the HRD ministry-funded National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal, have made a mockery of the Act, allege students.
Members of Astra, an anti-corruption body set up by a group of NIT alumni and students, said that NIT authorities have not furnished replies to more than 60 RTI applications pending since 2009 when the body came into existence.
The non-furnishing of information by NIT authorities may lead to some of the 2010-11 batch students protest during their convocation ceremony scheduled for August 27. “We will protest against the violation of the RTI Act by NIT authorities on August 25,” said the NIT Astra member, Mr Lingam Rajender Reddy, a 2010 batch mechanical engineer and civil services aspirant.
“We have decided to approach the Consumer Forum to get replies for 70 pending RTI applications, based on a landmark judgment given by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission in the S.P. Thirumala Rao case, which treats an RTI applicant a “consumer” under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986,” said Mr G. Nachiketa Sharma, an Astra member.
Incidentally, the demand for information under the RTI was also one of the two reasons 500 NIT students marched from the administrative block to the NIT main gate in a rally in support of anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare on Wednesday.
However, when contacted, Mr K. Madhu Murthy, the NIT registrar and CPIO, denied that more than 70 RTI applications were pending.
“We are not giving information because many queries are of a trivial nature; how many lights are working, etc., while in some cases the information sought is sub-judice,” he said, adding that “unnecessary RTI queries places a burden on the administrative machinery”.
