The BPL card holders are not required to pay the RTI Application fee of Rs 10/- in terms of Section 7(5) of the RTI Act, 2005. The Chhattisgarh Govt has denied this benefit on the basis of a Circular dtd 27.6.2011. The Circular is uploaded for public viewing. It makes a difference between BPL cards issued in 2007-8 and other BPL cards. The CG Govt says that the 2007-8 BPL card is meant for getting ration only and not meant for getting the exemption from Application fee & document fee under the RTI Act, 2005. I have talked with some journalist of print media and their innocent reply is that they are not aware of this Circular. This is the tragedy and level of our awareness and we call ourselves leaders, intellectuals, RTI Activists, social workers etc & etc. It is pertinent to mention here that the Govt of Chhattisgarh has fixed the rate of Application fee on the matters of State Legislative Assembly is only Rs 500/-. Can anybody imagine that a Govt which wants transparency and wants to share its information with public is charging the rate of Application fees Rs 500/-. It is simply ridiculous that Rs 500/- is the price to seek on a single point relating to matters of State Legislative Assembly. Now, the BPL card holder has also been deprived of his right given in the main provision of the RTI Act, 2005. So, the moral of the story is just try to think and again think about it.
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