Kerala - Kochi   

RTI officers a boon to Keralites working abroad

KOCHI: The appointment of public information officers (PIOs) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act at Indian embassies abroad will be of great use to lakhs of Keralites working in other countries, especially in the Gulf.

The Union Ministry of External Affairs has, on a directive by the Central Information Commission, designated public information officers and appellate authorities in roughly 100 Indian embassies, high commissions and other diplomatic missions. They will be responsible to provide information sought by Indian citizens living in those countries.

According to right-to-information campaigner D.B. Binu, non-resident Keralites (NRK) would be the biggest beneficiaries of the new measure in view of the fact that lakhs of Malayalis worked abroad. As of now, NRKs seeking information from the State government offices were forced to go through the labyrinth of official procedures and a wait for months and even years to get the documents and information they required. Now that the RTI Act has been extended to the embassies and high commissions, the NRKs could get them much easier and earlier through the public information officers there, he said.

Palat Mohandas, Kerala’s Chief Information Commissioner, said that the Central Information Commission had directed the Ministry of External Affairs to designate public information officers at the foreign missions as these missions worked under the Ministry and the Ministry came under the purview of the Act.

Several Malayali Pravasi organisations in the Gulf as well as in the United States had campaigned for the extension of the RTI Act to the Indian missions abroad. Even after the CIC’s directive in April, the Ministry of External Affairs had dragged its feet and it was the pressure by the organisations that had resulted in the recent appointments of information officers.

As soon as the public information officer was appointed at the Indian embassy at Washington DC, a group of 74 American NRIs filed a collective application seeking information on the number of people killed and wounded in the violence at Nandigram since November 4.

The applicants, who are supporters of the Association for India’s Development (AID), wanted from the West Bengal government reasons for delay in providing protection to the Nandigram people, the number of policemen deployed in the area, actions taken to restore peace and to provide relief, rehabilitation to the displaced people and the action taken against the criminals and those blocked entry of mediapersons and paramilitary forces.

The embassy pointed out that the subject matter of the information sought should pertain to the embassy.

Pravasi organisations in the Gulf are expected to take an active interest in helping the poorly educated Malayali manual labourers there to get information and documents they needed.

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