PANAJI
Town and Country Planning Minister Vishwajit Rane's missive to officials of the TCP department mandating that all RTI queries be referred for approval to the government before being furnished to the applicants has been rescinded.
In a public interest litigation moved by activists and concerned citizens against the written note, the State government has told the Bombay High Court at Goa that the Minister has moved a fresh note directing the TCP department to dispose of RTI applications at their level itself as per the provisions of the RTI Act.
The impugned missive had directed the Chief Town Planner (Planning) to inform the department's public information officers (PIOs) that information on RTI requests concerning matters of the Town and Country Planning department “ including applications for information relating to Section 17(2) approvals “ may be issued unless prior approval of the state government is available.
The petitioners argued that the orders were clearly illegal as they usurped the powers of the Public Information Officers, and were outside the scheme of the RTI Act.
