Government Enjoys Harassing Citizens

The title in Hindi means Darkness right under the lamp. I got this impression with an experience I had recently at the Karnataka Information Commission, supposedly the hub of the Right to Information Act (RTI) in the state of Karnataka, when I went there personally to submit an RTI Application myself. One would expect the people in the commission to be well versed with the act, and conduct themselves according to the spirit of the act.

In the application, I asked for certified copies for some circulars/guidelines issued by the Information Commission.

Here’s how it went (I’m the ‘Applicant’ here):

First stop: The Court/Tappal (no idea what that word means) office. 11:00 am.

Applicant: Sir, I want to submit this RTI Application to the PIO. Where’s the office of the PIO?

Clerk (Takes the privilege to read the whole application for 5 minutes, then replies rather rudely): There are no such circulars.

(Who asked you for a verbal reply of the RTI on the spot? Isn’t that a job for the PIO?)

Applicant: That’s fine, sir. Please tell me where is the office of the PIO.

Clerk: Ok, go that side and meet the secretary (Points to the other side).

(Is the secretary appointed as the PIO? I thought it was the section officer! So much for the knowledge of the office clerk)

Second stop: The office of Under-Secretary (U-Sec). 11:10 am.

Applicant: Good morning Sir, I want to submit this RTI application.

U-Sec (Reads the whole thing at his own pace): Ok, where is the IPO of Rs. 10/-? (Even though it’s clearly mentioned in the application that the fees is to be paid in cash)

Applicant: No sir, as mentioned I’ll pay by cash. Kindly provide me a cash receipt as per provisions in the act.

U-Sec (Got uncomfortable): Well, I’m not the PIO, it’s the section officer.(Finally someone knows) You’ve to wait till he comes, to pay by cash. Otherwise pay by IPO, and I can also receive.

Applicant: That’s fine Sir, but when there is clear provision of paying Rs. 10/- by cash, why should I pay Re.1/- extra to the post-office to get an IPO now?

U-Sec (Clearly very uncomfortable): Your concern is about paying Re.1/- extra. If you want I’ll give you Rs.2/-, but do you know we’ve to spend Rs.100/- worth of resources to accept your cash of Rs.10/- and get it to the government treasury? So much of stationery and processes are to be followed to accept cash  that’s more of a tension for us.

Applicant: Sir, I understand your concern. But just because you have such a complicated process, why should the common citizens have to spend extra money paying Re.1/- to another government agency (the Post Office)? Today it’s just one RTI, so it’s Re.1/-, what if I want to file 1000 RTI’s? Am I forced to spend Rs. 1000/- extra to purchase 1000 IPOs from the post office just because you’d have to follow some complicated procedure if you accept cash?

U-Sec (Got annoyed, as he has no answer to the legitimate argument): Alright alright, go and wait for the section officer. He’ll receive the cash and provide the receipt.

Third Stop: The Section officer’s cubicle. He’s still missing. 11:30am.

Applicant (to another clerk sitting nearby): Madam, when will the section officer come to office?

Clerk: Ya ya, he’s coming. Wait there.

Waited there for one full hour. Still no sign of the Section Officer. At 12:30 pm, I approached the Under-Secretary once again.

Applicant: Sorry to disturb you again sir, but I’ve been waiting for one hour now, and there’s no sight of the PIO. Are there no other provisions for an RTI applicant to submit the application when the PIO is absent?

U-Sec: Go and see the secretary at his office.

Fourth Stop: Secretary’s office. Not really sure, ‘cause there’s no signboard written as ‘Secretary’ anywhere. But it’s the room pointed by the U-Sec, so I guess, it must be the secretary. 12:35 pm.

Applicant: Sir, is this the secretary’s office?

Secretary: Tell me, what is it?

Applicant: Sir, I want to submit this RTI application and pay the fees in cash. However, I’ve been going around the office for last 1.5 hours, without any success. The PIO is absent, and no one else wants to receive the application. How much longer do I have to struggle in the office just to submit the application?

Secretary (Reads the full application himself too): Ok, one minute, let me check.

He then calls up some other clerks and asks if they have the cash receipt book with them.

Secretary (Disappointed himself, turns to me and politely explains): You see, you’re the first applicant ever in the Information Commission that have come to pay the fees by cash!(I hope I’m not the first ever RTI Applicant in the commission!) And thus the cash receipt book has never been taken out from the PIO’s cup-board; only he has it. And since the PIO has not come yet, I’m afraid you’ll need to apply with an IPO only or else come sometime later.

Applicant (Dejected and disappointed): Alright sir, I guess I’ll have to succumb to all this harassment finally.

So the end result is, the great government machinery finally made me walk down to the post office, buy an IPO of Rs.10/- by paying Rs.11/-, and then climb up to the 3rd floor again to submit the application. But I guess the machinery grind was far from over yet. 12:45pm

Applicant: Here sir, I’ve got an IPO finally. Please accept it now.

Secretary: Ok fine. (Calls up another clerk, and asks him to receive the application and give me the due acknowledgment).

Fifth stop: Back to the Tappal section (Court office) to get the acknowledgment for the application. 1:00pm

The above clerk took me to the cubicle where another clerk is supposed to be seated, who’d receive the application and give the acknowledgment. But as that person was not there, he asked me to wait.

While waiting there, I saw one interesting activity. A courier delivery guy came to deliver some letters to the office. Being familiar with the office surroundings, he went around giving the letters to respective clerks/officials. And finally he arrived at the same cubicle where I was waiting. And to my astonishment, he walked up to the seat of the clerk, picked up the rubber seal from his desk, put up a prompt seal on the courier receipt and left with the same ease! This made me wonder, are we really sure that the letters were indeed delivered to the official addressees, when you send some mails to these offices? Or are they all just provided some official seal of receipt by the courier boys or postmen like this? In fact they can easily do so even if the letters are thrown in the drains outside the office!

Anyway, after waiting for another 15 minutes, another clerk came to the adjacent cubicle and asked me to bring the application to him. He conveniently took another 5 minutes reading the whole application, as if finding some means to avoid receiving it. And finally he did the 10 seconds job, that I was waiting for since last more than 2 hours. He finally put a seal on the copy of the application, put the signature & date of receipt and gave me the acknowledgment. 1:20pm.

If this is how an RTI applicant is made to run from pillar to post and harassed at the State Information Commission itself, what can we expect from any other Public Authority or PIOs? Is this the kind of example the KIC wants to set in the state? Have they read the Section 18 of the RTI Act themselves, or is that section not applicable to them?