NEW DELHI: The Central Information Commission has slammed the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the Sports Authority of India for not providing an annual schedule of sporting events and directed them to proactively put it up on their websites.
Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said such a "proactive disclosure" was mandatory under the Right to Information Act.
The commission also directed the ministry and the SAI to update their official websites with the roster and schedules "to avoid the sports lovers from filing RTI requests for such routine information and report compliance to this commission before September 15".
"If the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports says that it does not know what is the schedule or roster of sports of the year in the nation, there is nothing more embarrassing than this," Acharyulu said.
He said the ministry is expected to have at least the schedule of various sporting events for the year.
"Whether the ministry wants the sports lovers to file an RTI to know the sports calendar?" he quipped.
The order came on a plea of Deepak Sandhu who had sought certified copies of roster of various sporting events, that come under the ministry, Sports Authority of India (SAI) and their subordinate authorities, conducted in a year.
He had also sought sports calendar for 2015-16.
Having failed to get any information, Sandhu approached the commission.
"At least the Sports Authority of India should have supplied this information. It was the duty of the CPIO of the ministry to collect the schedule and keep it as part of its record and supplied the same to the applicant," Acharyulu said.