State RTI Commission orders Kerala Bank and district branches to comply with RTI Act

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State RTI Commission has ordered to include the state office of Kerala Bank and 14 district banks and their branches under the RTI Act.

The order came after the bank did not release the documents related to the incident in which a woman died in a dispute over loan repayment at the Kerala Bank Kollam Patharam branch. The bank hid the records of the incident in which the property of a family in South Sooranad who had taken a loan was evicted from their house and their property was confiscated and following this, the woman committed suicide.

V Rajendran from Charummood Pookoyikkal, Alappuzha demanded that the documents be provided under the Right to Information Act. But the reply was received that the governing body has decided that the RTI Act is not applicable to Kerala Bank. At the same time, the reply said that the documents searched at Patharam branch were not required to be given under Section 8 of the Right to Information Act.

The Right to Information Commission heard the petition against this and found it contradictory to deny the information by citing the same law which it said was not applicable. State Information Commissioner Dr. A. Abdul Hakim ordered that the citizen has the right to know about the functioning of Kerala Bank, which came into existence by the order of the state government and has a total capital of 2159.03 crore rupees, in which the government has a share of 906 crore rupees and the additional capital of the government is 400 crore rupees and it should be protected under the Right to Information Act.

According to the Commission's order, while government share capital is essential for Kerala Bank, Kerala Bank is a position of public authority under the Right to Information Act and the manager of each branch is its public authority.

The Kerala State Cooperative Bank, Kerala Bank, is responsible for providing information to the citizens. Therefore, the Kerala Bank action report must be submitted to the commission by August 14 after providing information to V. Rajendran within a week. By this order, if any citizen of the country submits a Right to Information application to the Kerala Bank, the bank must provide the information.