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Wednesday, Jan 26, 2005

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Other States - Rajasthan

MLAs fail to elicit information

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, JAN. 25. At the end of a long and futile pursuit seeking information, both as MLAs and as common citizens, two legislators from the Opposition Congress have threatened legal action against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Government in Rajasthan for denial of their right to know.

The MLAs -- Harimohan Sharma, who is the general secretary of the Pradesh Congress Committee, and Chandrashekhar Baid -- after a series of letters and reminders to the Chief Secretary, the Principal Secretaries and various department heads, have now given an ultimatum: provide information under the Right to Information Act before the start of the next session of the Assembly, which is due on February 3, or face legal action.

In their joint letter of January 24, addressed to the Chief Secretary, R.K.Nair, both the MLAs have pointed out that their letters and reminders starting from November 4 to December 15, 2004, did not evoke even routine acknowledgements in the case of a few Secretaries.

"The State Assembly has passed a law making it the right of every citizen to seek information and get it within a stipulated time. In the case of the MLAs the previous Government had even issued instructions to the departments that their queries should be responded on a priority basis,'' the legislators told the Chief Secretary.'' It is a violation of the law not to provide information,'' they said.

Talking about the long process which did not yield result even with a privileged group like elected representatives, Dr.Baid told this Correspondent that the first letter seeking information was written to the Chief Secretary and all the Secretaries on November 4. The letter had sought details of the development activities carried out by various departments under the budgetary provisions for 2004-05.

"We sent a reminder on December 25 but barring a few, that too did not evoke any response,'' Dr. Baid noted. "As the Assembly session is approaching we need this information. If it is not forthcoming within a week we would be forced to take legal action under the provisions of the Right to Information Act,'' he warned.

Dr.Baid said the previous Congress Government had asked the departments to keep a register on the information sought by the MLAs and also to give acknowledgements of the applications made in this regard. As such the present Government had been lax even in replying to the unstarred questions put up in the Assembly and also those raised under Rule 295, he charged.

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