IOA, Games Organising Committee told to appoint PIOs

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has asked the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the Organising Committee (OC) of the Commonwealth Games 2010, to be hosted by Delhi in October this year, to immediately designate their Public Information Officers (PIOs) and Appellate Authorities as per the Right to Information Act.

The direction from the Ministry is in pursuance of the Delhi High Court's order of January 7 declaring both entities as Public Authorities under the Act.

Both organisations have also been asked to fulfill various obligations of being a Public Authority, as per Section 4 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, including maintaining all their records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner so as to facilitate the right to information under this Act and suo motu disclosure/publishing of information.

The Ministry had declared the IOA as a Public Authority in December, 2006 on the basis of the Central Information Commission's order of November 28, 2006. The OC was declared a Public Authority in November, 2007 after taking the opinion of the Ministry of Law and Justice in the matter.

However, both the organisations had filed a case in the High Court of Delhi against these orders of the Ministry.

NNN