Central Railways has asked an RTI applicant to shell out a whopping Rs81,000 for copies of reservation chart of two trains for a particular day; all by twisting its own official circulars and disregarding the RTI Act
Ravindra Wabale, a resident of Ahmednagar, is not so much an activist as much as he is a victim of tragedy, for which he is fighting a seemingly hopeless battle through Right to Information (RTI) applications. His brother was allegedly murdered during a train journey in the superfast Gitanjali Express on 26 May 2013, which runs between Mumbai and Kolkata. He wants to know who could be the alleged murderer, as police investigations have got him nowhere.
Ravindra Wabale, a resident of Ahmednagar, is not so much an activist as much as he is a victim of tragedy, for which he is fighting a seemingly hopeless battle through Right to Information (RTI) applications. His brother was allegedly murdered during a train journey in the superfast Gitanjali Express on 26 May 2013, which runs between Mumbai and Kolkata. He wants to know who could be the alleged murderer, as police investigations have got him nowhere.
A copy of the train reservation chart of 26th May of these two trains, by which his brother had travelled, is what he had asked for in his RTI application on 24 June 2011, as it would reveal the names of people who shared the compartment with him, on that ill-fated day.
Wabale received reply to his RTI from SM Kamble, chief commercial manager and also designated Public Information Officer (PIO) of Central Railways, Mumbai. Much to Wabale’s distress, the PIO has asked him to pay Rs1,000 per copy of the relevant trainreservation charts that runs into 81 pages and would therefore cost him Rs81,000.
The reply states: “In reply to your RTI application for furnishing copies of ReservationCharts of train nos 12859 and 12869 dated 26 May 2013, it is to inform you that as per Railway Board’s letter dated 13 December 2011, a fee of Rs1,000 per page is to be charged for furnishing a copy of Reservation Chart to any person. You are therefore requested to pay a charge of Rs81,000. On receipt of payment from your end, the copies of ReservationCharts will be furnished.’’
By the way, uploading of rail reservation comes under Section 4 of the RTI Act and the Railways regularly put up this information on its website. Railway network - local or national, is the lifeline of the country. But officers are trying their best to hide information and in this case, using the circulars. It is shocking that Railways are not adhering to the norms of the RTI Act and instead changing crucial words in the circulars to misinterpret them and harass RTI applicants.
Pune-based RTI activist, Vijay Kumbhar worked thoroughly on this issue by digging out the circular, which the PIO has quoted in his reply and accessing some of the earlier circulars from Railways as well.
Kumbhar said, “I studied the earlier circulars and have come to the conclusion that babushere have played with words to avoid or dodge RTI queries. The circular issued in 1994 is not available, but 2007 circular clearly shows that the fee of Rs750 was for verification purpose for government employees only and not for the copy of reservation chart asked by citizens. However, in the 2011 circular, the words ‘verification of PNR’ meant for verifying journey details has been changed to for ‘copy of reservation chart’. And the words ‘government departments’ were replaced by the words ‘any person’. This clearly indicates that it was done to avoid requisitions under RTI.’’
How ‘verification details’ in 2010 circular changed to ‘reservation chart’ in 2011
2007: The extract of the 2007 circular (No.2006FlG-I/20/P/LTC New Delhi, dated 10 January 2007) clearly states, “a uniform fee of Rs750 per verification should be charged by Zonal Railway from various government departments who approach for verification of LTC travel detail. The government agencies include - 1) Police/CBI in different types of investigation/ criminal cases 2) Courts 3) Railway Vigilance in various cases 4) Railway refund offices for deciding refund cases 5) Various reports of the Railways to dispose of complaint cases. CCMs/CCM (PMs) will, have discretionary powers to waive off the fee in specific cases like requests from different Commissions, Parliament or Legislative Secretariat etc. Necessary instructions may be issued to all concerned and receipt of this letter be acknowledged.’’
2010: “(No. 2006/TG-I/20/P/LTC New Delhi, dated 31 August 2010)
Please refer to this office letter of even number dated 4 May 1994 and 10 January 2007 (Commercial Circular No.06 of 2007) inter alia advising therein regarding charging of a uniform fee of Rs750 per PNR for LTC verification, and non-charging of this fee from certain agencies as prescribed therein. Now a query has been raised whether these charges are applicable for verifying journey details in other cases also.”
The matter has been considered at the Board’s level and it is clarified that Zonal Railways should realise a uniform fee of Rs750 per PNR for verifying journey details irrespective of the fact whether it is for LTC verification or otherwise.
2011: (Circular No.2006/TG-I/20/P/LTC Pt, New Delhi, dated 13 January 2011,)
“The issue has been examined in consultation with Finance Directorate of Board’s office and it has been decided that the following fee should be realized for furnishing a copy ofreservation chart to any person:
(i) For furnishing a copy of reservation chart to any person, a fee of Rs1,000 per page should be charged. In this case, party will be provided a printout of thereservation chart taken out from the system without indicating the status of passenger viz. turning up/non-turning up.
(ii) In case of furnishing of copy of working chart (having indication by TTEs/TCs relating to turning up or non-turning up and other relevant details), a fee of Rs750 per PNR should be charged for all the PNRs indicated on that page’’
Once again, even in the sphere of RTI, Netas and Babus want to bend and break rules.
According to a Gazette notification dated 16 September 2005, there are specific rules for providing information under sub-section (1) of Section 7 of the RTI Act, about additional fees.
a. For each page (in A-4 or A-3 size paper) created or copied Rs2 per page
b. For a copy in larger size paper actual charge or cost price
c. For samples or models actual cost or price
d. For inspection of records No fee for the first hour; Rs5 per hour thereafter.
Further, for providing the information under sub-section (5) of Section 7, the fee shall be charged at the following rates:-
a. For information provided in diskette or floppy Rs50 (Rupees fifty only) per diskette or floppy
b. For information provided in printed form. At the price fixed for such publication or Rs2 per page of photocopy for extracts from the publication. The mode of payment of above mentioned additional fees shall be the same as application fee.
(Vinita Deshmukh is the consulting editor of Moneylife, an RTI activist and convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting which she won twice in 1998 and 2005 and the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book “To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte” with Vinita Kamte and is the author of “The Mighty Fall”.)
