Public Information Officers of many government-departments and ministries of central and state governments are wasting public-resources including needless extra-heavy spent of man-hours by transferring an RTI application to an unending chain of thousands of other public-authorities on queries of generic nature. DoPT circular dated 24.09.2010 specifically prohibits such multiple transfer of RTI application under section 6(3) of RTI Act. One such transfer through an Office-Memorandum dated 15.02.2019 was done by Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Divyangjan of Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. It is also observed that some ministries and government-departments adopt such practice to avoid uncomfortable queries of RTI applications.
DoPT should take every step to stop such menace including issue of one more circular in this regard prohibiting multiple transfer and chain-transfer of RTI applications. DoPT can further advise public-authorities to refuse such transfer by reverting back RTI application to the ministry or department from where multiple transfer is originated. DoPT and CIC can arrange special RTI workshops for all about 2000 central public-authorities under CIC-jurisdiction for proper handling of RTI applications.
SUBHASH CHANDRA AGRAWAL