Expressing her dissatisfaction at the Medical and Health Department officials not maintaining registers and displaying information relating to Right to Information Act, Information Commissioner L. Tantia Kumari has asked officials of various departments to comply with the provisions of the RTI Act without waiting for the stipulated period.
She visited the drug storage, cold chain complex, district coordinators hospital, Vaidya Vidhana Parishad, Immunisation Centre, and other offices of the department on Wednesday and held a meeting with officials later at the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC).
Officials should be fully aware of the provisions of the RTI Act and the need to adhere to it by implementation, she said. Registers should be maintained at all offices and information readily available, she pointed out, adding that disciplinary action would be taken if the conditions remained the same.
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She enquired about the number of applications received right from the beginning when the Act came into being and their disposal. She told officials that RTI Act was above all the other Acts and any deficiency in compliance would lead to apprehensions among people. Boards must be displayed at all offices and efforts made to provide information in Telugu.
GVMC officials fined
She said that over a period of time 17 GVMC officials were fined from amounts ranging from Rs.2,500 to Rs.25,000 for not complying with the provisions of the RTI Act. Officials should act so as to prevent matters coming to such a pass. Municipal Commissioner M.V. Satyanarayana, Additional Commissioner (General) K. Ramesh, DMHO Syamala, KGH Superintendent Madhusudhanbabu, officials, and RTI activists participated.
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