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Monday, December 13, 2010

RTI Applicants should get ready for lessons in the Queen’s Language

If the Department of Personnel and Training has its way, then RTI Applicants should prepare themselves for a course in concise writing in English. Or they should get a crash course on abbreviations from their military colleagues and friends. Or they should skip the rules of grammar and try to put their thoughts on paper with minimal words. Or they should record their applications and send across a tape to the concerned Public Information Officer.

I say this because of these draft RTI Rules officially floated by the DoPT on which objections have been sought.

The government proposes to limit RTI applications to 250 words and to one subject. While restricting each application to one subject is understood, it is not comprehensible as to what would be achieved by restricting applications to a word limit. It sometimes becomes extremely important to provide a background of the information sought so as to enable the Public Information Officer to efficiently cull out the same, in other cases the description of the documents / files / records sought itself is so longish that it takes a few extra words. A rule like this would further make the entire process subjective and contingent on the whimsical interpretation of various authorities.

2 comments:

VNatarajan said...

Dear Maj Navdeep/ RTI Activists/ Others interested,

This retrograde step needs strong protest - as this will provide the easiest conduit for the babus to escape and extricate from the very grips of the RTI which can tighten their tendency to practice manipulations/ mischiefs/ misadventures on files and prevent their escape without the slightest protest.

RTI ACTIVISTS/ CITIZENS SEEKING INFORMATION ARE NOT APPEARING FOR THE PRECISE WRITING EXAMS THROUGH RTI QUERIES.

Moreover. as an advocate please confirm is there any ACT in the Indian Legal domain akin to the current proposal related to RTI Act 2005?

Anonymous said...

THE PROCESS OF DILUTING THE RTI THRU WHIMSICAL ATTITUDES HAS BEGUN AS THE POWERS THAT BE ARE FEELING THE HEAT!!

EXPECT SOME MORE DILUTIONS AND THEATRIC FROM DOPT IN THE NEAR FUTURE