RTI reply to farmer in 32,017 pages, weighs 150 kg

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 18

The Sirsa office of the Haryana State Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation Limited (HAFED) has sent 32,017 pages (weighing around 150 kg) to a resident of Darba Kalan in Sirsa in response to an RTI plea.

Registered parcels comprising 11 bundles arrived at the Darba Kalan post office this week to be delivered to information-seeker Anil Kaswan.

“I am a farmer and also believe in social service. In June, I moved an application seeking information on procurement of wheat and mustard in 2018, government norms regarding procurement and release of payment. I did so after discovering irregularities in the procurement of mustard and the inordinate delay in release of payments. The DC office re-directed my application to HAFED,” Kaswan said.

On July 2, he received a communication from the State Public Information Officer (SPIO) of HAFED that the information sought by him ran into thousands of pages and advised him to visit the office in Sirsa for inspection of records.

Under belief that the SPIO was trying to discourage him, Kaswan did not visit the HAFED office. On July 16, he again received a letter asking him to deposit Rs 68,834 — Rs 2 per page for 32,017 pages of information and Rs 800 towards postal charges.

The letter, however, was silent about Rs 4,000 as the total cost of pages and postal charges came out to be Rs 64,834. Kaswan submitted a draft for Rs 68,834 and the consignment of 11 bundles has been received by the village branch of the post office. 

Meanwhile, Kartar Singh, another RTI activist from Sirsa, has approached the Chief Secretary, accusing HAFED of harassing the information-seeker. “Instead of providing concrete data, the District Office prepared vague data to dissuade the applicant. A perusal of the original RTI application reveals that the information demanded is simple in nature,” he claimed.