Shocking it may sound, but it has emerged that many contractors who do works for the Tamil Nadu government are not willing to provide details about their projects in response to Right To Information (RTI) Act petitions. For instance, members of the Coimbatore Corporation Contractors’ Welfare Association alone have filed 75 cases in the Madras High Court for giving out their contract details through RTI replies.
Speaking to journalists, the association's secretary K Chandraprakash said, "as per Section 11(i) of the RTI Act, only public information could be given out as reply to RTI queries and no information about individuals could be given without their consent."He added: "Section 8(f) of the Act requires the concerned officials to get the consent of individuals before providing any information about them as replies. We have obtained a stay order from the court after some officials gave out our personal details in RTI replies."
Stating that more than more than 75 cases were filed against the officials before the high court for giving out their personal information, he added: "Recently, a damage suit was filed against a sales tax official for giving information without our consent." He said that some people were blackmailing them with the information obtained through RTI queries.
