the goan I network
MAPUSA
Deciding an appeal against the Public Information Officer (PIO) from his own office, Additional Collector III, Mapusa, Dashrath Redkar directed the PIO to refund excess amount of Rs 1,911 charged for documents asked under the Right to Information Act (RTI) to the complainant.
The Additional Collector III in his order also said the PIO should have charged Rs 2 per page instead of Rs 51.
The complainant, Swapnesh Sherlekar, had filed an appeal before the office of Additional Collector III, Mapusa against the decision of PIO/Awal Karkun for charging an exorbitant amount of Rs 1,989 as fees for providing copies of the document sought under the RTI Act.
Sherlekar said he had filed an application seeking information under the RTI Act 2005 before the PIO on November 26, 2018. He disclosed the PIO in a letter on December 6, 2018 had asked him to collect the information by paying necessary fees but failed to give the breakup of the fee structure which was in breach of section 7(3) (a) and (b) of the RTI Act.
In his appeal before the Additional Collector III, the complainant said the PIO acted in perverse and illegal manner by over charging him in violation of The Goa Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2006.
He further said the PIO should not have charged beyond Rs 2 per page and instead the PIO fraudulently charged Rs 51 per page of A4 size in contravention and violation of the Act and Rules.
The PIO, in his written reply, said the fees of Rs 51 per page was charged as per the fees notified as per the Notification 26/13/106-RD/163 published in the Notification Official Gazette Govt of Goa dated February 1, 2018, Draft Rules at Sr No 2 Amendment of Rule 12, Schedule-A at Sr No 17 (a).
After going through the submissions of the complainant and the PIO, the Additional Collector III said the documents applied by the complainant did not come under any of the 34 documents covered under Rule 12, for which Revenue Department had prescribed separate fees and therefore was outside the ambit of Rule 12 of The Goa Land Revenue Rules, 2018.
He said the information sought should be charged Rs 2 per copy and directed the PIO to refund the excess fees of Rs 1,911 within 10 days
of the order.
