RTI activist seeks inquiry against state information commissioner
LUCKNOW: Failing to get the required information under the RTI act, Saleem Baig, an RTI activist, has written to the governor seeking an inquiry against the state information commissioner.
Baig had sought information from Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Urdu Arabi Farsi University on fourteen points after the university officials in a press conference declared that Urdu would not be a compulsory subject in the university.
Baig said, “The press conference was hosted in July 2014 and soon after that I filed an RTI application seeking information regarding the qualification of teachers at the university, executive council, academic council and vacant posts. But I did not receive satisfactory answers for some of the points and thus I filed the first appeal.”
Failing to get the information even through the first appeal, Baig moved the state information commission. “My complaint is against the state information commissioner who disposed of my case without ensuring that I get the complete information. If the commission begins to act this way, where will people go for information? This is violation of the RTI act,” said Baig.
He also alleged that there were huge anomalies in the university. “Ideally the university cannot neglect Urdu language as its sole purpose was promotion of the language. After the vice chancellor declared in a press conference on July 10, 2014 that Urdu wasn’t mandatory anymore, I filed the RTI and the reply to my questions given in September 2014 was in contrast to the declarations made during the press conference.”
Baig said that he was told that the decision for elimination of Urdu compulsion was not final and was under consideration by a professors’ committee.
“The two pieces of information are contrasting. Moreover, the professors’ committee does not have the right to take such decisions in the university as per the UP University Act 1973,” said Baig.
He also alleged that two such cases related to the same university have been disposed off by the information commissioner without ensuring adequate information.