Many govt depts refuses to furnish information under RTI Act: BJP MDC

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 14, 2024

BJP Tura MDC Bernard N Marak has alleged that many government departments have refused to furnish information sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

In a statement issued on Friday, Marak said, “RTI Act violated by many government departments. Many departments refused to furnish information to the RTI filed in February which is a gross violation of the RTI Act.”

He said that some C&RD blocks and projects taken up by the government under various flagship programmes such as IBDLP and others refused to furnish any information on various RTIs filed in the District.

One such question which IBDLP was asked the second time and they refused to furnish information was the list of beneficiaries who availed the FOCUS scheme which was released to the voters just before the 2023 election.

“I was informed by an insider that the bureaucrat officers who are looking after these programmes directed the district officials not to provide the information. If that is the attitude of the bureaucrats than there is a terribly big scam involved in these projects. Apart from that, some of the departments gave vague replies while others gave unclear copies of their replies in spite of asking the information specially in an electronic format,” Marak said.

The MDC said that the response to the RTI was not satisfactory and many departments also refused to furnish the details of the beneficiaries and their contact numbers.

“If the officers do not furnish the RTIs in the next ten days, we will be forced to take legal steps and we will take it up to the court if necessary. Deputy Commissioners should also be held responsible because the RTIs were filed through them because the departments so often don’t take RTIs seriously. There is lack of transparency in many departments and their refusal to furnish detailed information is evident enough that they do not want to divulge the facts sought through RTI,” he stated.