RTI Reply- MP Legislative Assembly doesn't have attendance records
10 Sep, 2012An application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act was filed seeking the attendance details of Speaker Ishwardas Rohani and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the Madhya Pradesh legislative assembly since 2008. The reply to the RTI application by the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the Assembly states that since the Assembly doesn’t keep attendance records of its members no such data could be provided.
The RTI applicant Nityanand Mishra contended that this is a violation of section 4 (1) (a) of the right to information Act 2005, under which all public authorities have to maintain their records duly indexed so as to facilitate RTI. He also raised the question about the grounds on which the reimbursement of travel, daily allowances and other perks to the MLAs are being made. It should be noted that a daily allowance of around Rs. 500/- is to be paid to MLAs for participating in the proceedings of the assembly.