KOCHI: Is the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) resorting to delay tactics in answering RTI applications? This is in contrast to the spirit of transparency promised by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy that his office would be open to the public 24 X 7. Such a contradiction was evident when an application was filed by the Human Rights Defence Forum seeking information regarding the assets and the liabilities submitted by the Chief Minister and his ministerial colleagues. “We had received RTI replies to similar queries from the previous government. According to the rules, the assets of the Chief Minister have to be revealed to the Governor and those of the ministers to the Chief Minister,” Forum general secretary D B Binu said. The RTI application had also sought certified copies of the Cabinet note, the list of topics discussed and the decisions arrived at in the Cabinet meeting held from May 18 till date. In the reply, R Gopakumar, Deputy Secretary and State Public Information Officer said, “The statement of the properties and assets/liabilities of the Chief Minister and other ministers are not available with this public authority.” The letter goes on to state that the minutes of each council meeting are collective decisions taken by the Council of Ministers on various subjects dealing with various departments. The decisions taken at the Cabinet meetings from May 18 till date and the Cabinet meetings held from January 1, 2011, to May 17 could only be provided after the decisions are taken and the matter is completed. “You can verify the minutes so that you can submit separate applications before the State Public Information Officers concerned for the copies of the Cabinet decisions,” Gopakumar said, in response to the RTI queries. However, under section 8 (1) (i) of the RTI Act any decision taken by the Cabinet can be accessed through an RTI application, D B Binu said.
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