The Right To Information Act (RTI), intended to empower the public and bring out administrative transparency, has turned into a nightmare for the fledgling Telangana University based in Nizamabad. The authorities of the university, who have neither trained personnel nor enough funds to serve the public under the Act, are at their wits end as to how to cope with the pressure generated by genuine and motivated applicants, without attracting the contempt of the State Information Commission.
What has hit Telangana University is a recent request by two of its students, C Varadaiah and N Soundarya, who sought information related to all recruitments done in the past three years ever since the varsity was set up. Normally, a request for providing information does not pose a problem for the university as it would levy charges for the stationery and photocopying of the documents.
But the present case is posing a huge problem for the varsity. This is because as per rules, anyone who falls in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category should be provided the information without being charged for the stationery and photocopying. All the applicant needs to do is attach a copy of his BPL ration card with his request, said officials.
It is the statistics involved in obliging this particular request by two students falling in the BPL category that has stumped the varsity officials. Varadaiah and Soundarya sought copies of notification pertaining to the recruitments done in 2006, 2007 and 2008, the applications the university received along with all enclosures including call letters sent and copies of the joining reports from the university.
Telangana University registrar K Sivasankar told HNN that the varsity had recruited only 38 teaching and five non-teaching staff during the last three-year period. “However, 1,000 applications had been received. If we have to comply with the request of these two students, we would have to provide them 24,872 pages of information,” the registrar said.
The numbers involved in this exercise has the cash-strapped university groping in the dark.“We have no funds to purchase enough stationery for photocopying nearly 25,000 pages of documents. Apart from the cost, we have no staff to do clerical work of this magnitude,” Sivasankar said. He also lamented the fact that no authority had ever trained them on matters pertaining to the RTI Act.
But that is not all. Before providing this information, the university has to seek and obtain permission from all the 1,000 applicants for the information pertaining them to be disclosed to any applicant under the RTI act. “Who will do the dispatch job? The entire university has only 5 nonteaching personnel. And where will we get the funds for the work?” he asks.
According to Sivasankar, the university has no provision to spend money for disclosing information under the RTI act. As of now, an assistant professor from the faculty of law has been designated as the PIO with an honorarium of Rs 1000. After seeing the massive work needed in putting together nearly 25,000 pages of information from various sources, the PIO is reluctant to continue to hold the responsibility, said the registrar.
And to top it all, the university should complete the process within 30 days from the date of receipt of the application.”Imagine what will happen if others also apply for the same information,” he wondered.
Meanwhile, applicant Varadaiah claimed that the information was needed to verify the irregularities allegedly committed by the authorities in the recruitment. “The university cannot abdicate its responsibility in providing information on the pretext of paucity of funds, lack of personnel and bulky nature of the work,” he insists.
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