The Hindu : Kerala News : Exercising the right to know

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Sunday, Apr 01, 2007
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Kerala

Exercising the right to know

The city police are finding it hard to meet requests placed under the Right to Information Act due to the shortage of hands, writes Anand Haridas.

That more people have started using the Right To Information Act has made the City Police officials to sit up. Officially, the force welcomes it, saying that it will bring in more transparency to their operations.

But the office of the City Police Commissioner is finding it hard to meet the demands at times due to the shortage of hands. "We have requested for more staff to handle the requests placed under the RTI Act," said A. Anil Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Administration), who is the Public Information Officer for Kochi City Police.

Between March 2006 and March 2007, the PIO received 220 requests. Most of the queries were from those in the force regarding service details. Queries from the public were mostly about progress of cases registered by the city police.

The police should reply to general queries within 30 days. But those related to personal liberty and freedom of individuals should be replied within 48 hours.

The officials concerned were finding it hard to fish out details of the cases, since it involved checking old files. The delay in Common Integrated Police Application' (CIPA) taking off had also made the assignment hard for the officials. Once CIPA was in place, the first information reports would be entered directly to the computer and would be available in the network. Even the computerisation of the police stations in the city limit was yet to be completed.

The city police have not received many queries that are meant to trouble the force. Some of the odd ones that came included details of the calls made from and to the mobile phone of Sobha John, main accused in the Sabarimala tantri case.

"The Act has provisions to turn down requests about cases under investigation or to summon the applicants to ask about specific details of the request placed," Mr. Anil Kumar said.

The Kerala Police Officers' Association had recently organised a class on the RTI Act at the city traffic (West) police station. Nearly 70 personnel from the police stations within the city limit attended the class. And many used the opportunity to clear doubts regarding how to use the Act to get information regarding their services. "We plan to have more workshops for public and school children on the various aspects of the Act," Mr. Anil Kumar said.

With the word spreading, the force could expect more requests to turn up at their desk.

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