MARGAO
Issuance of information under the Right to Information Act has come to a halt at the Margao Municipal Council, but for a different reason “ the MMC Head Clerk designated as the Public Information Officer (PIO) is presently on medical leave and there’s no mechanism in place or an alternate PIO to issue information under the RTI.
What is believed to have further aggravated the issuance of information under the RTI Act is that the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) Gurudas Pilarnekar has designated only the head clerks as PIOs in the three A Class Municipal bodies, including Margao. In the past, the section officers were all designated as PIOs in the Municipal bodies, dishing out
information to the public under the RTI Act, before DMA Pilarnekar in his wisdom decided to designate the head clerks in the three A Class Municipal bodies as PIOs.
Despite reservations expressed by the head clerks as well as the Chief Officer to the designation of the head clerks as PIOs under the RTI Act, the DMA has decided to continue with the arrangement though complaints are galore that the head clerks as PIOs do not receive cooperation from the section heads, who are much senior in position, holding gazette posts compared to the head clerks.
What has brought issuance of information to a halt under the RTI is the fact that the civic body has no inbuilt mechanism in place to designate other officials as the PIOs under the
RTI Act. That’s not all. The Margao Municipal Council has a lone head clerk attached to the Administration section. Another post of head clerk has been lying vacant and attempts by the Margao Municipality to revive the post has not materialised as yet.
In the absence of the head clerk, who has proceeded on medical leave and given that another post of head clerk is lying vacant, the MMC could not hand over the charge of PIO to an alternate clerk.
The Goan understands that the MMC has no system of a link officer who
could automatically take charge of the PIO position after the incumbent head clerk proceeded on medical leave.
When The Goan called up Margao Municipal Chief Officer Manuel Barretto to shed light on the situation, he conceded that the civic body has no mechanism in place, including a link officer to automatically take charge as the PIO. “After the situation was brought to my notice, I have issued instructions to the administration to make alternate arrangement so that issuance of information under the RTI does not come to a halt,” he said.
Sources, however, wondered whether the Chief Officer’s instruction will change the ground reality when the DMA’s order issued a couple of months ago clearly designates the head clerks in the three A Class Municipal bodies as the PIOs under the RTI Act.
An official in the know questioned the DMA’s order designating the head clerks as the PIOs under the RTI Act when the earlier order designating the section heads, who are gazetted officers, had been a better proposition.
The Goan understands that the Margao Municipal Chief Officer had recently written a letter to the Director of Municipal Administration with a plea to relive the head clerks from the duties and responsibilities of the PIOs under the RTI Act given their administrative nature of duties.
