Whispers Forum

Extreme heat conditions have disrupted life all over the country and caused a water crisis in many parts of India. Climate change is a very big challenge facing the country today. But once the nation receives the monsoon showers and the weather becomes cool everyone including the government, politicians and the people forget everything and no one bothers about saving the environment and the nature. According to experts, the number and severity of droughts, floods and storms in India will continue to increase rapidly. So we have to save nature although monsoon showers will, hopefully, end our misery within a few weeks as Southwest Monsoon is predicted to strike Kerala coast on May 21, ten days before its scheduled arrival date.
Kamal Tripathi

A senior citizen of age 70 years. For last one month, I was visiting sub post office Mansarovar Jaipur to deposit 1.50 lac in my PPF a/c but to no avail. There is no separate counter for the senior citizens. There is always a long line of agents and touts and the young to jostle out the young. Finally after a month’s struggle I was forced to transfer my PPF account to the adjacent ICICI bank.
Dr G K Tiwari IAS (Retd)
Editor-in-chief should conclude comments
We read many viewpoints on various debates. I think the editor-in-chief should conclude his comments/ views on the debate after a week or so including the points published in the forum so that the final outcome of the debate should be known to all readers of the Whispers in the Corridors.
Pradeep Kumar

Information was sought about pension and interpretation of FR 56 various Ministries for individuals who are born on the 1st in the afternoon of the preceding date and retiring. The Commission remarked upon a perusal of the facts on record that the Appellant has placed the facts of the case on record in an extremely cumbersome manner and having perused the records of 4 other similar cases being heard simultaneously with this case, it is evident that through his RTI Applications, the Appellant is in a habit of narrating grievances and seeks for information as a passing reference which the CPIO cannot be expected to deduce and interpret to his satisfaction. The CIC observed that the PIO, in his wisdom, has interpreted certain queries in the RTI Application and provided some information which is in conformity with the spirit of the RTI Act. Taking a liberal view in the case, the CIC directed the PIO to revisit the queries, and provide any additional information that may be available to the Appellant, free of cost.
Comments
Many PIO face RTI Applications where the applicant keeps on describing a situation over a number of paragraphs and somewhere hidden amidst it, is a query. It is advisable to have an open mind in all such applications and not miss the request seeking the information in the heap of words.
Citation: Gopal Krishan v. Department of Pensions & Pensioner’s Welfare in File No: CIC/DP&PW/A/2021/106830, Date of Decision: 30/03/2022
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is an expert on RTI matters and has co-authored the books RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE and PIO’s guide to RTI. Apart from her weekly article here, her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link: www.rtifoundationofindia.com

I request Banks to publish a list of working days instead of holidays which would be more convenient to public and also it will be easy to remember.
Raghavan
Rehabilitation of a ‘misguided youth’
Just curious whether the Central Govt would have been equally benevolent towards members of other services, in case the member is missing for years together and rises against the Political Establishment, had Faesal not been member of the biggest service union. Short of words on this generosity. Looks like rehabilitation of a ‘misguided youth’
Bosidini
Corrupt get highest priority
Yes. In this Government, all the corrupt get the highest priority in appointments and extensions.
Virat

Whoever may be CJI, if his lordship fails to ensure timely disposal of cases from trial courts to SC, like other Judges, it will have no difference.
M P Srivastava
Post of PrCCIT Mumbai most powerful post
Indeed, Principal CCIT, Mumbai, is the most powerful position considering the budget collection. However, it is to be noted that both Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax and Member, Central Board of Direct Taxes are placed in the Apex scale. So technically, it is not an "elevation" as mentioned by you. However, had it been an elevation from the level of Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (HAG + scale) to Member, CBDT (Apex Scale) would qualify for an elevation in pure terms.
Sandeep Mishra

A very good and relevant case in which every CPIO, SPIO, FAA and everyone in contact with RTI should read. In most cases, the RTI reply is not specific and the reference would be made to the website. The websites are clumsy containing information dumped in a random manner from where retrieval is not possible. An applicant cannot be expected to keep searching for the information. If the reply contains specific reference to the page where the information is kept on the website, it would save a large number of unnecessary appeals.
Chudasama V

The appellant has sought information about the competent authority responsible to take action on the alleged irregularities and misuse of funds. The appellant was guided to the website where information is available. The CIC observed that the PIO could not provide the hyperlink where the information is available. The appellant categorically denied the availability of information on the website. The CIC observed that there is no mechanism to check the availability without the PIO’s assistance and directed that the information available on the website can be printed and given to the appellant in the interest of transparency.
Comments
In most cases where the information is available on the website of the organisation, the PIO is not supposed to take a printout and provide it to the applicant. The PIO should provide the specific link of the page rather than giving a vague reply that the information is available on the website of the organisation.
Citation: T Retna Pandian v. Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology in File no.: CIC/DBTEC/A/2020/133004, Date of Decision: 31/03/2022
Dr. Anuradha Verma (dranuradhaverma@yahoo.co.in) is an expert on RTI matters and has co-authored the books RIGHT TO INFORMATION - LAW AND PRACTICE and PIO’s guide to RTI. Apart from her weekly article here, her other articles can be read at the website of RTI Foundation of India at the link: www.rtifoundationofindia.com