Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 1: In a significant decision, the State Information Commission (SIC) has declared Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences and Hospital (ASCOMS), Sidhra as public authority under Right to Information Act and directed the College to designate Public Information Officer (PIO), First Appellate Authority at the earliest and furnish information to the applicants.
These directions were issued after the Commission received four complaints on different occasions alleging therein the denial of information by Director/Principal of ASCOMS on the ground that College is not a public authority as defined in Section 2(f) IV (A) & (B).
After detailed analysis of various provisions and going through the complaints of Sanna Mir, Balvinder Singh, Riaz-ul-Hussan Malik and Anil Kumar Gupta, State Information Commissioner, Dr S K Sharma said, “ASCOMS possesses the essential elements/ingredients of Section 2(f)(iv(A)and(B) which is substantially financed by the Government and controlled by different agencies under the State Government”, adding “the Medical Council of India, University of Jammu, Board of Professional Entrance Examinations (BOPEE) and Health and Medical Education Department of the State Government play an important role in regulating its activities including professional and academic standards. It is therefore, covered by the regime of RTI Act and can be called a public authority”.
Accordingly, the SIC directed the Director/Principal of ASCOMS to designate PIO and First Appellate Authority at the earliest under Section 5 of the RTI Act and also to comply with the mandate of Section 4 of the RTI Act by April 30, 2013.
“The information sought by the information seekers should be provided to them within one month under an intimation to the Commission. They may also be allowed to inspect the records in case the information sought by them is voluminious in nature and be provided copies of documents required by them if any on payment of fee as prescribed under RTI Rules”, the order said.
The applicants have sought information on whether selections of MBBS under NRI/NRI wards Quota for the session 2011 has been made or not, how many seats have been reserved for the children of poor and backward families and how many students applied for admissions under the sports category etc.
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