Here's an encounter that the city police are in no mood to encourage. Within days of a Right to Information activist subjected to third degree at a city police station, TOI finds that it wasn't a stray bad experience, with cops pulling out all stops to stay RTI-proof. In fact, police officers in some stations even say they are unaware of the RTI Act and remain most unresponsive when it comes to their responsibilities under the Act. And a telling reality: a significant number of pending cases at the Information Commission pertain to the police department.

From claiming that "there is nothing like RTI" to showing the door to quizzing on the reasons for filing an RTI query, police stations come across well-armed against anybody seeking information under the Act.

On Tuesday, TOI posing as an RTI applicant visited police stations with a simple three-question query: the number of FIRs filed at police stations in the year 2011, the number of cases solved and the number of cases pending. The Cyberabad commissionerate directed the applicant from one official to another, with the third official, an administrative officer, finally reluctantly accepting the application, saying that a "lot of information" had been sought in the query and it would take over a month to put it together.

The Punjagutta police station did not deny giving information. It simply refused to accept the RTI query since the letter was "not in an envelope". In fact, it took time for the concerned Public Information Officer (PIO), the writer (who writes complaints and FIRs) at the station, to decide whether or not to accept the application. He threw a volley of interrogative questions demanding to know the applicant's background, details of professional life and also residence proof etc. The applicant was also advised to show more interest in other police stations and spare Punjagutta. The PIO also demanded to know repeatedly why the applicant was interested in these details and what he intended to do with it. After much persuasion, the PIO insisted that he would accept the application only if it was brought in an envelope. The RTI Act does not mention any such rule.

It was a similar experience at the Begumpet police station where an inspector first tried to physically stop the applicant from entering the premises. The second hurdle was once again the station's PIO (the writer) who bombarded the applicant with questions about background only to advise him in the end to concentrate on social service and stop filing RTIs which is not beneficial to anyone. However, unlike at Punjagutta they accepted the RTI application.

RTI activists corroborate TOI's experience with their own. P Ramakrishna, an RTI activist shared how a colleague had gone to Chandanagar police station on December 4, 2011, to file an RTI query on the number of road accidents in the area. "He was held over and the inspector called me from the station. I was asked rudely about why we needed this information," says Ramakrishna, adding that he recorded that telephone conversation where the inspector was threatening him. While the RTI query was finally accepted, a reply is still awaited.

Another activist, T V Bhaskar of Guntur said that he received threatening calls four months ago following which he informed the collector and district SP and sought protection, which was denied. A government circular released in 2010 states that any RTI activist seeking protection should be provided the same.

Known RTI activist C J Karira said that the home department was the most RTI-unfriendly. He said as per the Act, every police station should have a board outside giving details of the PIO and the appellate officer which is not being followed in any police station in the city.

The government owes over Rs 110 crore to cash-strapped Air India for its special flights which ferry VVIPs including the President and the Prime Minister on their visits abroad which it is trying hard to realize.

The national carrier, which is facing a financial crunch, has pending bills of 12 special flights for the President, the vice-president and the Prime Minister which amount to over Rs 110 crore, an RTI reply from the carrier said. It said during July last year, the total outstanding bills were Rs 291 crore.

"Out of the above amount, recently the government has paid Rs 181.30 crore leaving a balance outstanding amount of Rs 110.60 crore," the reply said. The records show that two bills of are pending with the defence ministry for the abroad travel of the President to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Damascus and Aleppo during November 20-30, 2010, which is Rs 14.5 crore and another to Paro via Bagdogra which is Rs 4.45 crore. The bill to Paro, Bhutan is nearly three years old, the reply dated December 28, 2011 said.

Five bills worth Rs 55.81 crore are pending with the Cabinet Secretariat for the travel of the PM to Huahin, Thailand during October 23-25, 2009, to Paro, Bhutan during April 27-30, to Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi during October 23-30, 2010, to Seoul during November 9-12, 2010 and to Brussels and Berlin during December 8-12, 2010.

One outstanding bill for the travel of the vice-president to Male, Maldives is pending since November, 2008. The total bill for this trip was Rs 2.77 crore of which part payment was done leaving an outstanding of Rs 39 lakh.

With complaints of arbitrariness in hearing of cases piling up, the Central Information Commission last week began listing out pending cases before each commissioner on its website. Cases pending before chief information commissioner Satyananda Mishra and information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi have already been uploaded while the other commissioners are likely to follow soon. This is the first time that an information commission has displayed at least a partial list of cases pending before it.

Speaking about the move, Mishra said, "This is an added advantage to the public. Other commissioners will also put up their list of pending cases but we have not set a time frame." CIC has a pendency of 22,000 cases with about 2,500 cases added every month. The decision was prompted by an RTI application that sought information on the status of a case filed a year ago. Information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said that in replying to the decision, the commission realized that the case was over a year old and was inadvertently left out of the cause list.

"I realized that if a mistake had been made in one case, it could have been made in some others as well. A careful search of 2010 cases revealed another 110 cases which had been forgotten and missed completely," Gandhi said. In fact, one of the cases related to the widow of a government employee and her struggle to get pension that only ended 17 years later.

The 'List of pending cases' has been displayed on the CIC website and will be updated every month. Gandhi said, "CIC is only six years old and this will be an opportunity for us to correct mistakes and also reassure citizens that there is fairness in taking up their cases. In most commissions and judicial bodies, citizens suspect arbitrariness and corruption in the listing of cases. The simple act of listing all pending cases publicly will go a long way in restoring citizens' confidence in these institutions, and also act as self- regulating check."

RTI applications may now be limited to 250 words and to only one topic if the rules for processing of such applications suggested by the Department of Personnel may find their way through.

According to proposed amendments in the RTI rules, the DOPT, nodal body for implementing the Act in the country, has said each application will be limited to 250 words excluding the address of the public authority and applicant. It will also be limited to only one subject matter.

Even more surprising is the fact that RTI applicants will have to pay the "actual amount" spent by public authority on hiring a machine or any other equipment, if any, to supply information.

The rules will be a modification of the present RTI (regulation of fee and cost) rules, 2005 and the Central Information Commission (appeal procedure) rules, 2005.

The DoPT has sought the comments on these changes from public on email id "usrti-dovt@nic.in" by December 27, 2010.

The rules have resulted in furore among RTI activists who say that they will be of no good to semi-literate and illiterate people who are the main users of the law.

"Though Comments being sought from Civil Society though in accordance with Section 4(1)(c) of the RTI Act, however this notification gets limited to only those who are net friendly and that too only two weeks time given," Commodore (Retd) Lokesh Batra said.

He said people from rural areas who do not have Internet access will be devoid of sending their views on the subject.

"Putting a word limit of 250 words will obstruct the Right to Information. There was very minute number of people who misused the provisions of RTI applications by asking large number of questions but there are enough powers to reject such applications. There was no need for such limits on word usage," said Subhash Agrawal, another RTI activist.

"The new rules widen the ambit of discretionary use by the concerned Public Information Officer who can reject the applications summarily," Venkatesh Nayak of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative said.

He asked how can the government set a limit of words, especially when same set of questions in different languages will require different word usage.

He also said legally the process of RTI starts when application is submitted to a PIO. "The State cannot dictate the user to set word limit before process starts. Instead the CPIO should be empowered to ask the appellant to prioritise the information, in case of voluminous information," he said.

Even as Gujarat prides itself as the only home to the Asiatic lions in India at Gir National park, as many as 223 lions and 193 leopards have died in the sanctuary since 2006-07. The last census of lions in 2010 revealed that there were 411 lions in the Gir Sanctuary.

In reply to an application filed under the Right to Information Act (RTI), the office of the chief forest conservator informed out of 223 deaths, seven were the result of poaching while others died of natural causes or accidental deaths. The number of death due to natural causes stood at 182, while 33 have died due to accidents.

The last lion killed by poachers was in 2009-10. SK Nanda, principal secretary of forest and environment department, Gujarat said he was not aware of any poaching cases in the last couple of years. 

When DNA pointed out that this data was revealed under the RTI, he said they could be ‘alleged poaching cases’. He insisted, “There has been no poaching death in Gir. Local people are aware, and poachers can’t function in the region without their support.”

According to the information made available under the RTI, most of the natural deaths were caused by brain hemorrhage. A source close to the development said usually a lion suffers from brain hemorrhage when it collides with a tree or a rock after running tirelessly, especially when it hears a sound or sees a light in the midnight. 

The RTI activist, who didn’t want to be named, said it was puzzling to find that most of the lions have died due to brain hemorrhage. “It could only happen if the lion runs because of fear and collides with a tree or rock,” he said. 

The activist also claimed the state government’s figures related to the lions population are misleading.

The activist claimed the number of deaths mentioned in the RTI reply only takes into account the lions whose post-mortem have been conducted. “There are many lions whose autopsy is usually not conducted and they are directly immersed,” he claimed.

Pointing out the reason behind the unnatural or accidental death of 33 lions, in last five years, the activist said, “Lions have either fallen into the open pits or in the open well”. 

Principal chief conservator of forest, Pradip Khanna could not be reached for comment.