PANJIM: The advocate general (AG) of Goa is a "public authority" and does come within the purview of the Right To Information (RTI) Act, the Goa State Information Commission (GSIC) ruled on Thursday. The Commission has now directed the Goa chief secretary to appoint a public information officer (PIO) under the RTI Act in the office of the advocate general.
The chief secretary has also been directed to ensure that the AG's office complies with Section 4 of the RTI Act by displaying all information pertaining to his office on the official website. It may be recalled that a complaint was filed before the GSIC by social activist Aires Rodrigues accusing AG Subodh Kantak of not complying with the provisions of the RTI Act despite the fact that the Act was implemented to promote transparency and accountability.
Stating that the AG is a "public authority" as defined in Section 2(h) of the RTI Act 2005, and is a constitutional authority under the Constitution of India, Rodrigues had submitted that as a 'public authority' he was required - under Section 5 of the Act - to designate a PIO within 100 days to provide information to individuals requesting for it.
Way to go advocate Aires. Congratulations to you ! I hope the people og are following this article. Subodh Kantak should give an unconditional apology to the entire public. A disgrace to have a person with the title of " Advocate General" not knowing what his job requirements are. It gives me ample reason to wonder if he is really a qualified person or another number to list of the " Illiterates /Unqualified" with a fake qualification.
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