Dated 14-09-2007

Name of the Complainant:
Shri Akhil Gogoi
Near Circuit House, D R College Road
Ward No. 9, Golaghat.

Name of the Public Authority:
i) D.C. Golaghat
ii) Dy. Director, F & C S, Golaghat

The following were present:
1. Shri D.K. Goswami, ACS DC, Golaghat
2. Shri Kamal Mahanta Director, F & C S, Golaghat
3. Shri Lokeswar Das Dy. Director I/C. F&CS, Golaghat
4. Shri B.K. Singh Jt. Director, F&CS, Assam Guwahati
5. Shri Akhil Gogoi
6. Shri Jayanta Dutta
7. Shri Guluk Chetia

Brief of the case
On 17.8.07 a petition was received from Shri Akhil Gogoi of Golaghat in which he complained that he sent a representative to the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies , Golaghat with Rs. 216/- for depositing the amount as cost for information sought for by him and to collect the information from the office of the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies. But his representative was turned away without taking the money or furnishing the information.

Thereafter he submitted an appeal before the Deputy Commissioner, Golaghat on 29.6.07 and again on 19.7.07 he applied to him to furnish him the information free of cost. But the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Golaghat who heard his appeal in the absence of the D.C. Golaghat on 30.7.07 gave an order that as the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies had written to the Chief Information Commissioner praying for time for furnishing the information, the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies would not be abl to furnish it till receipt of the direction of the Commission which, according to the complainant was highly illegal.

The complainant also stated that on 2.8.07, on receipt of a letter from the Commission, the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies responded but asked his representative to pay an amount of Rs. 95,390.00 as the cost for furnishing the information, while the same public authority informed him in writing on 28.3.07 that only Rs. 216/- was to be paid as the cost. The complainant alleged that this was totally contradictory and as the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies did not furnish him the information within the stipulated period as per the RTI Act, 2005 he should be imposed penalty at the rate of Rs. 250/- per day up to a maximum of Rs. 25,000/- and the information should be given free of cost.

The Commission decided to hear another case No. AIC. 287/2007 along with this case, as both the cases have the same subject matter. The information sought in both these cases are :

1. What are the goods supplied by Food and Civil Supply Department for the people?
2. What quantities of sugar, rice, wheat kerosene etc are sanctioned in a month?
3. Name the Firms / Department and their respective allotment
4. How they distribute all these goods to Cooperative Societies and fare price shops? Monthly stock register of Firms / Depots sanction/ issue book of F&C supply Department (Photocopy)
5. What quantities of rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene are allotted to police, CRPF or other Security Forces? List of these allotment, photocopy of their receipt registrar.
6. Name all fare price shops / societies and their respective allotments
7. List of beneficiaries of these shops and societies.
8. Provide monthly stock register of each firm / depot in the year of 2006-07. also their daily sales register, copies of cash memos
9. Inspection register of the department offices
10. Card register of every shop / society.

Submission of the parties
Shri Akhil Gogoi, who was present during the hearing with two persons who went to the office of the Deputy Director, F&CS in connection with deposit of the cost and collection of the information reiterated that he sent a petition under the RTI Act on 5.3.07 pertaining to the allotment and distribution of the PDS articles in the district of Golaghat as he suspected that there were irregularities in the distribution of these articles among the members of public and the cooperative societies and their agents as well as the fair price shop dealers do not distribute rice, wheat, sugar and kerosene amongst the public properly. He wanted to collect information regarding monthly allotment of P.D.S. articles, their lifting by the cooperative societies, F.P Shops, lists of beneficiaries of these shops and societies, monthly stock register of each firm / depot in the year 2006-07 and their daily sales registers and copies of cash memos. He also wanted sanction / issue book of F&CS department. Lists of allotme nts as well as the photocopies of their receipt register-books were also wanted by him. He submitted that he was asked by the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies to pay Rs. 95,390/- which was surprising as earlier he was asked to pay Rs. 216/- only for the information.

Shri D.K. Goswami, Deputy Commissioner, Golaghat and the First Appellate Authority apologized to the Commission on behalf of the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Golaghat who could not be present in the hearing due to his remaining in charge of the district during his (Shri Goswami) absence and submitted that it was his mistake not to have postponed the hearing of the petition of Shri Akhil Gogoi and allowing the Addl. Deputy Commissioner to hear it and he owned up the responsibility of the mistake of the Addl. Deputy Commissioner in referring the matter to the Commission for granting them time to furnish the information. He admitted that he was not very much aware as to what was to be done when the number of documents to be collected from different third parties in the district was huge and whether time could be taken from a petitioner under the RTI Act for collecting many documents to furnish the complete information. He admitted that he was not conversant with the provision of RTI Act.

Shri Das, Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies, Golaghat submitted that he issued a letter dated 28.3.07 requesting him to pay Rs. 216/- as he had 108 documents readily available in his office relating to allotment of PDS articles in Sadar Subdivision. He admitted that his letter to Shri Akhil Gogoi dated 17.4.07 was a mistake as he should have accepted the amount from the representative of Shri Gogoi and he apologized for the same. He submitted that the information sought for by Shri Gogoi was not completely available in his office and only the orders of allotments were available. He, therefore, wrote to all Secretaries of Gaon Panchayat level Samabay Samittees of Golaghat Subdivision, all Fair Price Shop dealers of Golaghat & Dergaon, all S.K. Oil depots, to the SDFO (C) Dhansiri Subdivision, to the Superintendents of F&CS, Bokakhat and Dhansiri on 14.3.07 to furnish information to him so that he could furnish the information relating to the PDS articles to Shri Gogoi. He issued reminders t o all of them. In the meantime, representatives of Samabay Samittees, GF.P. Shop dealers, Kerosene dealers, Modern Chakki mills and Roller Flour mills submitted a representation to the DC. Golaghat expressing their difficulty in spending huge amount for supplying photocopies of the documents as it would be a huge expenditure. However, he persuaded them to furnish the information and the number of pages collected so far was 34,079 which cost Rs. 72,112/- for photocopy. Also the SDO(C), Dhansiri assessed an amount of Rs. 23,278/- for supplying photocopies of 11,639 number of pages and as such he issued a letter to Shri Gogoi requesting him to deposit Rs. 95,390/- for 45,718 number of pages giving him detailed calculation. Shri Das also clarified that he had already furnished 134 pages to Shri Gogoi before getting the instruction of the Commission to furnish information free of cost.

Observation of the Commission
(i) It was clear that the Deputy Commissioner, Golaghat committed mistake by referring the matter to the Commission for clarification / direction and denying the information to the petitioner till the receipt of response from the Commission. The Commission advised the petitioner to pay an amount of Rs. 216/- as demanded by the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies Department, Golaghat. Copy of which was also given to the public authorities. Thereafter 134 pages of information were given free to the petitioner cost of which was more than Rs. 216/-.

(ii) The information as sought by the complainant were very voluminous and collecting them from various agencies spread over the whole district was not possible within the time of one month as specified under section 7(1) of the RTI Act, 2005. Nevertheless the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies had made earnest effort to collect the information from all the societies, dealers etc. and to a great extent he was able to get them despite many obstacles. Therefore the Commission found no reason to nail him for deliberate refusal to provide information to the complainant or to mislead him in any way.

(iii) The Commission saw the photograph of the documents which were reportedly sent by the allottees to the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies and also perused the letter dated 13.8.07 and dated 10.8.07 relating to calculation of cost. It was seen that the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies assessed the cost of photocopying of A-3 size at Rs. 5 per page which should be Rs. 2/- only. The Commission found that the number of documents involved was huge and photocopying of these documents would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authorities and the Cooperatives societies wanted that cost of photocopying be paid to them. Here the Commission found that neither the Public Authority nor the Addl. Deputy Commissioner nor the SPIO (i.e. Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies) was aware of section 7 (9) of the Act which states as follows:

(a) “An information shall ordinarily be provided in the form in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in question”.

(iv) As the number of documents to be photocopied was huge, the SPIO / Public Authority could have advised the complainant to inspect the records and take copies of some selected documents if it was not possible to pay the entire Rs. 95,390/-. Instead the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies had had the entire document photocopied by the societies.

(v) The complainant submitted that he may be able to pay the amount as calculated by the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies because his friends and other activist had agreed to contribute for the same. If that be the case the Commission would like the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies to provide entire information as already photocopied by him without any delay.

Decision of the Commission
1) The Commission on a careful consideration of all facts and circumstances of the case and in the light of the observations hereinbefore made directed the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies, Golaghat to:

(a) furnish the entire information which had already been photocopied to the petitioner on payment of the complete amount as calculated @ Rs. 2/- per A-3 & A-4 sheets,

(b) in the alternative the complainant is at liberty to select the pages required by him and pay for that many pages only and the Deputy Director, Food & Civil Supplies will hand over the pages on realization of the cost @ Rs. 2/- for A-3 & A-4 sheets,

(c) enable access of all related records / registers / files by the complainant for inspection / taking notes if the complainant so wants free of cost. However the complainant will pay for the photocopy charges should he wants to take photocopies of the pages from the records / registers / files,

(d) the Deputy Commissioner, Golaghat and the Director, Food and Civil Supplies, Guwahati will ensure that the above directions are carried out under their active monitoring by 17th October, 2007 and

(e) compliance of this order will be put up by the Secretary of the Commission before the Commission on 23.10.07.

Sd/- (R.S. Mooshahary)
Chief Information Commissioner, Assam
Janata Bhawan, Dispur.


Sd/ (Dr. B K Gohain)
State Information Commissioner, Assam
Janata Bhawan, Dispur.


Authenticated true copy

(Jiauddin Ahmed)
Secretary, State Information Commission, Assam
Janata Bhawan, Dispur.

CC:
1. Shri D.K. Goswami, Deputy Commissioner, Golaghat.
2. Shri Kamal Mahanta, Director, Food & Civil Supplies, Golaghat.
3. Shri Lokeswar Das, Deputy Director I/C. Good & Civil Supplies, Golaghat
4. The Director, Food & Civil Supplies, Assam, Guwahati.
5. Shri Brig Kishore Singh, Jt. Director, Food & Civil Supplies, Assam, G.S. Road, Guwahati – 5.
6. Shri Akhil Gogoi, Near Circuit House, D R College Road Ward No. 9, Golaghat.
7. The DIPR, Dispur, Assam
8. MD, AMTRON, Bamunimaidan.
9. Office file.


Secretary
State Information Commission, Assam