PIOs charges extra money for providing attested copy under RTI
29 Apr, 2013An application was filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking to get information about the category of vehicles to which Vehicle Entry Tax (VET) is applied in Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) and the number of contractors deployed to recover the tax. The RTI application also sought to know about the resolutions passed in the board meetings in past five years.
In the response to the query the public information officer (PIO) said that for the regular charge of Rs. 2 per page, the applicant would be provided with only a plain photocopy of the information but if he wanted attested copies of the demanded information, he would have to pay Rs. 25 per page. Thinking that the unattested copy might not be authentic, the applicant paid Rs. 200 to get eight pages of information.
The applicant has alleged that the PIOs are flaunting with the RTI Act to generate revenues while the KCB officials claim that the decision to impose extra charge was taken in a board meeting as citizens were pressing too much for attested copies. Citizens are insisting for attested copies to enable them to be used as authentic copies and demand a stamp with a signature on each page of photocopy.