For 11 years (2006 to 2017), the BBMP head office had a fairly active central RTI Cell that accepted all RTI requests. The applicant only had to address the request to the ‘PIO (Public Information Officer), BBMP’, and the PIO in charge of the RTI Cell would forward the request to the concerned officer.

Since the closure of the Cell in 2017, citizens have to identify the specific PIO in charge of the department/area that the RTI inquiry relates to. Not an easy task given that the BBMP has over 500  Public information officers (PIOs)  across the city.

Its tough for citizens to get information about BBMP’s decisions and actions.

• Identifying the right officer is tough considering over 500 PIOs in the system. 

• When identified it gets even tougher to meet them as officers are frequently out on field work. 

• Applications that require information from multiple offices would be even more difficult to file. 

• When filed not many of the RTI requests are addressed, which means citizens now need to identify the right appellate officer. 

• Currently, the BBMP website does have an outdated list of PIOs and appellate authorities which is available only in Kannada, with many of the phone numbers given not working.

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Background:

The RTI Cell in the BBMP headquarters was set up following a strong struggle by activists, and not due to any proactive sentiment on the Palike’s part. 

Activists Struggle: 

Hearing the case filed by Mr. Ravindranath Guru of the RTI activists’ forum KRIA Katte, in 2006, the KIC ordered BBMP to set up a “separate computerized cell to receive and monitor all RTI applications”. The Cell was to act as a central registry for all RTI requests to BBMP and immediately pass on RTI applications to the concerned officer. If the information was unavailable at a single place, the Cell had to collect it from various officers, compile and give it to the applicant within the time limit.

As per the RTI Act, KIC’s decisions are binding on public authorities. Hence BBMP set up its RTI Cell, which functioned till 2017 but it was shut down citing reasons that RTI received pertained to various wards and transferring the requests to the respective  PIO was taking lot of time to and sometimes upto 15 days.  BBMP then published on its website a list of 502 PIOs and 145 appellate authorities.

In the circular, BBMP referred to a case before the KIC in 2016 to justify this decision. At the hearing of this case, BBMP had said that the RTI Cell gets about 200 applications daily and transferring these to the respective PIO took about 15 days. The KIC had then ordered BBMP to take action as per Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, which only says that applicants should submit written applications to the PIO.

The KIC order nowhere mentioned closure of the RTI Cell. The BBMP however interpreted it to mean that applications should be directly submitted to the relevant PIO instead of the RTI Cell. 

RTI activists have tried many avenues to get the RTI Cell to reopen. They even got the state’s Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) to direct BBMP to reopen the Cell. But BBMP has not responded to the DPAR directive.

Activists feel 

• The cell is closed only to curtail citizens' use of RTI. 

• The way to address this problem was to increase the number of staff rather than shutting the RTI cell down. 

Why should RTI cell reopen 

• As per Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, KIC ordered BBMP , that applicants should submit written applications to the PIO.The KIC order nowhere mentioned closure of the RTI Cell. 

• In addition to the KIC order, government circulars also require BBMP to have an RTI Cell. 

• Guidelines issued by the Centre’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in 2013, says RTI Cells should be set up in public authorities that have more than one PIO. In 2017, BBMP on its website had a list of 502 PIOs and 145 appellate authorities.

• the State DPAR’s circular of 2013,says that a government department should establish an RTI Cell if 10% or more of the applications it receives are RTI applications. BBMP had claimed in 2016 that they receive 200 applications daily. 

The basic object of the Right to Information Act is to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government. BBMP cannot deny citizens the information they seek. 

Urge Sri Tushar Giri Nath, Chief Commissioner BBMP  to 

• Reopen the RTI cell 

• Publish latest list of PIO and appellate authorities on BBMP website in both English and Kannada. 

Source: https://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/why-bbmp-rti-right-to-information-cell-closed-81849