MP man gets 40,000-page reply to RTI plea, brings home documents stuffed in car

In a bizarre incident, a man got a 40,000 page reply to his Right to Information Act (RTI) plea in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, stuffing his entire car with the documents on Saturday. When Shukla did not receive the information within the stipulated one month period, he approached the first appellate officer(Representative image) Dharmendra Shukla, the petitioner, also didn’t have to pay ₹2 per page, since his RTI plea was not answered within a month. Shukla had submitted an RTI with the Indore’s Chief Medical and Health Officer (CMHO) seeking details of tenders and bill payments related to the procurement of medicines, equipments and allied materials during the Covid-19 period. When he did not receive the information within the stipulated one month period, he approached the first appellate officer who accepted his plea and ordered to provide the required information free of cost. “I took my SUV car to ferry the documents and the entire vehicle got packed. Only the driver’s seat remained free,” PTI quoted Shukla as saying. Meanwhile, the appellate officer and Regional Joint Director of the state health department Dr Sharad Gupta said that he had directed the CMHO to take action against the official due to whom the state exchequer lost ₹80,000 since the information was not given in time and had to provided free of cost to Shukla. (With inputs from PTI)