INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF INDIA, NEW YORK, REQUIRED UNDER SECTION 4(1)(B) OF THE RTI ACT, 2005.

Contact details of officers for addressing applications under Right to Information Act, 2005:-

Public Information Officer

Mr. Vishal Jayeshbhai Harsh

Consul HOC

Consulate General of India

3 East 64th Street

New York, NY 10065

Fax: (212) 988-6423

E-mail: hoc[dot]newyork[at]mea[dot]gov[dot]in

Appellate Authority

Dr. Varun Jeph

Deputy Consul General

3 East 64th Street

New York, NY 10065

Fax: (212) 988-6423

E-mail: dcg[dot]newyork[at]mea[dot]gov[dot]in

1. Applications seeking information under the RTI Act 2005 may be sent along with the prescribed fee in Dollars, equivalent to Indian Rs.10/- in cheque or demand draft favoring Consulate General of India, New York as per the prevailing official rupee dollar conversion rate. The RTI fee can also be paid using e-ipo service of Department of Posts details of which is given in para 2 below.

2. The Government of India (Department of Post) has launched the e-IPO (Electronic Indian Postal Order) service to facilitate purchase of Indian Postal order electronically for paying RTI fee/cost of information on-line through e-Post Office Portal (https://www.epostoffice.gov.in ) or https://www.indiapost.gov.in  of the Department of Posts. The detailed instructions for using the e-IPO service for payment of RTI fee on-line are contained in DOP&T's OM No. 1/44/2009-IR dated March 22, 2013. (Please click here  to get the details. The facility of e-ipo has been extended to 176 Indian Missions/Posts abroad also vide Department of Personnel & Training OM NO 1/44/2009-IR dated October 7, 2013 (please click here  to see the OM). Department of Posts has extended the eIPO service to Indian citizens residing in India also w.e.f. February 13, 2014 vide OM No. 1/44/2009-IR dated 13th February 2014 (Please click here  to see the OM). The RTI applicants may, therefore, pay the RTI fee/cost of information, also on-line using the said e-IPO service, for seeking information from Ministries/Departments in India as well as from Indian Missions abroad.

3. It may be noted that information provided under the Act is available to citizens of India only. OCI/PIO Card holders are foreign nationals, holding foreign passports and are, therefore, not eligible to seek information under the RTI Act 2005.Applications should be submitted along with documentary proof of Indian Citizenship (like copy of personal particulars pages of passport.)More information is available at http://rti.gov.in . The mailing address is Mr. Vishal Jayeshbhai Harsh, Consul (HOC), Consulate General of India, 3 East 64th Street, New York, NY 10065.

4. It may also be noted that as per section 6(1) (a) of the RTI Act, 2005, a person who desires to obtain information under the RTI Act is required to submit the application to the Information Officer of the concerned public authority. Applicants are, therefore, advised to send their requests under the RTI Act to the Consulate only when the subject matter can reasonably be presumed to pertain to the Consulate. While section 6(3) provides for the transfer of an application by a receiving PIO to another [concerned] PIO, this is clearly meant to cover situations where the application is addressed to a PIO on the assumption that it has been directed to the concerned PIO. Where the information required obviously does not pertain to the Consulate, the application may be addressed to the concerned PIO directly.