List of the cultural and theatre organisations who have not been paid remuneration for three years was sought - PIO: The defaulting or pending repertory cases are uploaded on the website - CIC: Facilitate inspection of the files related to repertory grant
25 May, 2018ORDER
FACTS:
1. The appellant sought the details of salary grants given to organisations working in different cultural fields in the country, list of the cultural and theatre organisations who have not been paid remuneration, list of the organisations whose statements for income and expenditure and utility certificates of the cultural organisation for the years 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 have not been enrolled or updated in the computer system of the Ministry, initiatives to increase the monthly livelihood i.e. Rs. 6,000 given to senior artists, etc. Since there was no response from the CPIO, the appellant filed first appeal on 16.03.2017.
Decision :
2. Mr. I.A. Kamal, Under Secretary submitted that complete information sought is available at their official website under specific minutes of the meetings. Mr. Rajiv Ranjan, Section Officer, during the hearing demonstrated to the Commission different categories under which details of all beneficiaries/gurus/artists of repertory grant are updated along with names of their respective cultural organisation.
3. Mr. I.A. Kamal explained that the Ministry of Culture has no provision for payment of salary to the artists but repertory grants are paid annually i.e. Rs. 10,000 to gurus and Rs. 6,000 to artists.
4. The appellant alleged that the Ministry is not maintaining the records of payment and certain cultural organisations in Lucknow are not getting paid any grants since three years. Mr. Kamal, Under Secretary, explained that the grants are given to the gurus/artists only when the cultural organisation submits the utility certificate/report for the previous sanctioned grants. The CPIO further stated that the defaulting or pending repertory cases were also uploaded on their website.
5. The Commission appreciates the organised categorisation of information on the website of Ministry of Culture which includes cultural organisation-wise details regarding number of gurus and artists sanctioned the repertory grants.
6. The Commission directs Mr. I.A. Kamal, Under Secretary and Mr. Rajiv Ranjan, Section Officer to facilitate inspection to the appellant of files related to grant of repertory grant for 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, on 02.05.2018 at 11:00 a.m.
SD/-
(M. Sridhar Acharyulu)
Central Information Commissioner
Citation: Dabir Siddiqui v. PIO, Ministry of Culture in CIC/MCULT/C/2018/100381, Date of Decision - 2.5.2018