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About the Act :-
The Parliament has enacted the Act known as the Right to Information Act, 2005 which came into force on 15.6.2005 which extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu & Kashmir. The Parliament has enacted the said act in order to promote the transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority.The entire Act is available on the website http://www.persmin.nic.in.On and from 12.10.2005, the general public can avail the provisions of the Act to have the information in the control of a public authority.
Public Authority :-
The expression Public Authority means: - Any Authority or Body or Institution of self-government established or constituted:
(a) by or under the constitution ,
(b) by any other Law made by Parliament,
(c) by any other Law made by State Legislature,
(d) by Notification issued or Order made by the appropriate Government, etc.
Obligation of Bank:-
Bank of India is a Public Authority as per the definition given in the Right to Information Act 2005.So Bank of India is obliged to provide information to the general public to the extent permitted by the Act.
What is Information:-
Information includes records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advises, press releases, circulars, orders, log books, contracts, reports, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a Public Authority.
Who can request for Information:-
Every citizen of the Country who desires to have the information in the control of the Public authority can make a request, subject to payment of the fee prescribed by Government of India after 12/10/2005.
Any person, who desires to obtain an information shall make a request in writing paying the fees prescribed to Central Public Information Officer specifying the particulars of the information sought by him. The request may be made in writing or through electronic means in English or in Hindi or in the official language of the area.The request from the person for information should contain his contact address in full which would enable the Central Public Information officer of the Bank to give the reply to the request promptly. Since the information can be disclosed only to citizens of India the person approaching Bank for the information is advised to disclose the citizen status as well.
Whom to approach for the information:-
Our Bank has designated the Zonal Managers where Zonal Manager is in the rank of Deputy General Manager / Assistant General Managers as the Central Public Information Officers (CPIO) and in the Zones headed by the General Manager, the second officer in charge of Zone is designated as CPIO for the respective Zone and branches under their control. The Deputy General Manager (Government Business Department) is designated as CPIO for Head Office and General Manager (Operations) of the Bank as Appellate authority under the Act and the details of the said personnel are given hereunder for the information of the General Public. Those persons and their successors in office at the Head Office and the Zonal Office respectively of Bank of India shall act as the respective Central Public Information officer/Appellate Authority under this Act.
How to apply for the information:-
Central Government has framed the rules, which lays down the fees for the application as also the cost for obtaining the copies of records maintained by Bank.As per the Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules 2005, a request for obtaining information under Section 6(1) of the Act shall be accompanied by an application fee of rupees ten by way of cash against proper receipt or by demand draft or bankers cheque or Indian Postal Order payable to the public authority.
The application accompanied by requisite application fee can be sent by post also.Bank is bound to consider and reply to the applicant within 30 days from the date of receipt of the application which may kindly be noted.In case the application is sent by fax or e-mail, the Central Public Information Officer shall acknowledge the same but shalltake it up for consideration only on receipt of the prescribed fee stated above.
For providing the information under sub-section (1) of Section 7 (disposal of request), the fee shall be charged by way of cash against proper receipt or by demand draft or by bankers cheque or Indian Postal Orders payable to the public authority at the following rates
a)Rs.2- for each page (in A4 or A3 size paper) created or copied
b)Actual charge or cost price of a copy in larger size paper,
c)Actual cost or price for samples or models and d)for inspection ofrecords, no fee for the first hour; and a fee of Rs.5- for each subsequent hour (or fraction thereof) thereafter. Further to provide information under sub-section (5) of Section 7, the fee shall be charged by way of cash against proper receipt or any demand draft or Bankers cheque or Indian Postal Orders payable to the public authority at the following rate :-
a)for information provided in diskette or floppy rupees fifty per diskette or floppy; and
b)for information provided in printed form at the price fixed for such publication or rupees two per page of photocopy for extracts from the publication.
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