Information commission seeks citizenship report

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 20 OCT: The state information commission has directed the Malda sub-divisional officer and the state information officer working under the Malda district magistrate to provide information to applicant Mr Ashoke Agarwala regarding Mr AN Khan Choudhury's status of citizenship.

The state information commission wrote the letter to the Malda district administration on 1 October in response to the application filed by Mr Agarwala.

Mr Agarwala, an advocate, wanted to draw the attention of the commission when the district administration failed to provide information regarding Mr AN Khan Choudhury within 30 days, according to the Right to Information Act 2005.

The administration had conducted a magisterial inquiry following the instruction of the commission in February 2009, but it could not provide the information to the applicant despite several reminders filed to the district nodal officer (RTI cell) and even the additional district magistrate (general).

Mr Agarwala had submitted an application to the nodal officer of the RTI (Right to Information) cell in Malda on 1 April, 2009.

The advocate finally wrote a fresh application to the state commission on 14 September when he did not get any information regarding the status of citizenship of Mr Khan Choudhury.

The district magistrate Mr Sridhar Ghosh said that he did not have the information about the letter sent to the state information commission, which was later transferred to his RTI cell.

But Mr Ghosh admitted that the district information cell could not provide information within 30 days because of lapses of staff posted at RTI cell.

“The application must be disposed of and I will reshuffle staff in RTI cell soon,” Mr Ghosh, Malda DM, said.

The responsible officials, who failed to follow the RTI Act 2005, will have to charge penalty for these lapses, the DM disclosed.

Mr Agarwal had also lodged a complaint with the election commission in February when Mr Khan Choudhury was not in a position to contest the parliamentary elections due to his controversial citizenship issue but he possessed an Indian voter card despite being a Swiss citizen.