Aurangabad, Nov 7:
The officials from different sections of Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) complained of facing inconvenience as they are receiving a large number of RTI applications daily. Moreover, the authorities are fed up with giving repeated information sought by different people or selected names.
Two years ago, the then commissioner of police (CP) had intervened the issue and tightened the noose of applicants through restrictions when the AMC and other government offices found people were misusing the act of right to information (RTI). Later on, the RTI activists got underground. The things have restored to normalcy, and the activists again became active. In AMC, they are targeting few sections only to submit their RTI applications.
The Town Planning Section receives several applications seeking information like how many building permissions had the AMC sanctioned in the past few days, how many proposals claiming TDR has received by the section etc. The Establishment Section receives applications seeking information about specific officers or employees.
The employees grieved that they had to work on holidays to answer the queries made under RTI. The civic officers and employees are fed up with handling these applicants. They are aware of why the applicant is seeking the information from them but had to be tolerant as the administration has to provide demanded information under RTI. The strength of genuine applicants seeking information under RTI is very less, it is learnt.
The information sought under RTI is as follows: Why XYZ officer has been given promotion on what basis, why this XYZ officer has been appointed in this section, Does the appointment fulfils the AMC rules, how many employees are recruited through private agencies, what are their salaries, the names of officers posted in anti-encroachment squad etc.