HYDERABAD: Educational institutions in the state have turned out to be one of the biggest violators of the Right to Information Act. About 11 educational institutions, mainly universities, have failed to furnish the mandatory information as part of section 4 (1) (b) of the RTI act to the Information Commission. Every state government body is supposed to provide their complete details to the commission, which then uploads it on their website. This information includes details such as the functions and budget allocation of the organization, role, designation and remuneration details of all the employees, important documents held by the department among others.

The erring institutions are JNTU, Anantapur, Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University, Hyderabad, Yogi Vemana University, Kadapa, Satavahana University, Karimnagar, Vikramasimha University, Nellore, Krishna University, Machilipatnam, Mahatma Gandhi University, Nalgonda, Palmuru University, Mahbubnagar, Rayalseema University, Kurnool, B R Ambedkar Open University, Srikakulam and AP Hindi academy. These institutions have also failed to provide the details in their own website, as per the state information commission's annual report for the year 2011.

Surprisingly, the officials of these universities displayed poor knowledge of the Act. "We do regularly send data to the council for higher education and not the information commission," said V Sankar of JNTU-Anantapur when quizzed on the issue.

He later admitted that they were not aware of this particular section of the RTI Act. "If the information commission asks us, then we will work on it," he said. S Khaleel-ur-Rehman, registrar of Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University (JNAFAU) said, "If the commission wants us to send any particular information then we can just be briefed about the format and we would oblige."

The information commission has decided to summon the university representatives soon. Jannat Hussain, chief information commissioner of the state, said, "Since they have not been complying with the Act, we will now force them to do so. We will summon them soon and give a time limit to get their act right. Even after several years of the Act, how can they be not aware of it?", Hussain said.

Source : TOI