Now,each PGI department has its very own RTI cell

This has been done under Section 5(1) and 5(2) of the RTI Act 2005. The same pattern already exists at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS),New Delhi.

Sources say that PGI authorities thoroughly studied the implementation of the RTI Act in AIIMS and only then the same pattern has been replicated here in PGI.

As of now,there is only one RTI cell which was handling the entire workload of all the departments starting with receiving RTI applications to sorting them and then sending them to the respective department to which these pertain to.

The respective department then sends the required information to the RTI cell which sends it to the applicant.

However,sources say that many times,the departments would fail to provide the required information within the stipulated time period of 30 days and as a result,the applicants were forced to go in for appeals,and the purpose of seeking information under the RTI was defeated.

Moreover,due to delay in providing information under the RTI Act,many applicants were forced to go in for appeals and then to CIC in many cases.

With the nomination of faculty members and doctors as PIOs and CPIOs in the department itself,the authorities are expecting that the applicants will no longer have to go through the futile exercise of filling application to the RTI cell and instead will be able to directly file the applications to the concerned department,thus saving time.

As per the new orders,Amod Gupta,Dean PGIMER,will be appellate authority for the departments of anaesthesia,dermatology,gastroenterology,hepatology,internal medicine,neurology obstetrics,gynaecology orthopaedics,otolaryngology,plastic surgery,psychiatry,pulmonary medicine,radiotherapy,renal transplant surgery,urology,advanced trauma centre,advanced pediatric surgery,advanced eye centre,oral health sciences centre,drug de-addiction centre.

For all the departments located in the S S Anand Research Block A,Kusum Joshi,sub dean will be the appellate authority and for departments located in the P N Chuttani Research Block B,Meera Sharma will be the appellate authority .

Anil Kumar Gupta,Medical Superintendent will be the appellate authority for departments under hospital administration,purchase division,public relations.

Surjit Singh,deputy director administration will be the appellate authority for the estate branch,establishment,legal cell,vigilance cell,welfare department,labour department etc.

Under the new restructuring of the RTI cell,there would be 78 central public information officers and 78 assistant central public information officers unlike earlier arrangement with just two such officers. On an average,about 12-15 applications are received everyday in the present RTI cell.