Hubballi: “The RTI cell at the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) is anti-citizen” said Santosh Nargund, convenor of the Hubballi-Dharwad Pragati Sankalp Action Committee recently.

Moreover it is reported that several RTI activists and public have alleged that they have denied information for one reason or the other. The silence of the HDMC commissioner on this issue has made some activists approach the higher authorities in Bengaluru.

Santosh speaking to the media said that instead of helping implement the RTI Act, it’s systemically shooing away applicants. I sent my wife recently to submit seven applications. There were three persons in the cell and they didn’t accept the applications citing various reasons. They didn’t even listen to me when she connected us by phone. They called up some senior, who without listening to us, gave an address to which he wanted us to send the application. When we said they should give this in writing, they declined,” he said.

Ironically, the same application was accepted when Nargund went the next day and spoke to them.

Some other activists approached officials in departments like the municipal administration, DPAR-AR and state information commission. They’re also planning a protest.

When contacted, assistant commissioner SR Math, who is in-charge of the RTI cell, said, “If applications are in English or Hindi, we request them to file them in Kannada. If applications are not related to the HDMC, we suggest the applicants approach the department concerned. We have not rejected any applications sent by SpeedPost. We’ll streamline our process anyway.”