Times
of India: Chennai: Thursday, 28 August 2014.
After a
series of protests against the indifferent attitude of Tamil Nadu State
Information Commission to provide information to RTI petitions, activists on
Wednesday met governor K Rosaiah and submitted a petition to dismiss the info
panel.
"The
chief information commissioner K S Sripathi and other commissioners are working
against the interest of Right To Information (RTI) Act. They don't have any
moral right to continue in their post as they had completely neglected the
transparency law," said Siva Elango, president of Satta Panchayat Iyakkam
(SPI), an NGO.
He said the
governor has the power to replace the commission under the Section 17 of RTI
Act. "In 2012, an information commissioner in Kerala was suspended by
governor H R Bhardwaj."
As per the
RTI Act, the chief information commissioner and information commissioners shall
be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law,
science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or
administration and governance.
"The Act
nowhere mandates that only retired bureaucrats can be appointed as the
commissioners. TN should also follow the same and constitute a panel with
experts which compromises of RTI activists on the lines of New Delhi,"
said Elango.
"The
commission had released its annual report till 2008 a week ago after repeated
protests by RTI activists. Of the sanctioned strength of 10 state information
commissioners, 5 posts are vacant resulting in an accumulation of several lakhs
of appeals. Activists say the lethargic, irresponsible attitude of Sripathi is
the reason for the pendency," said Senthil Arumugam, general secretary of
SPI.
When contacted,
Sripathi refused to respond to the call.
However,
activists said that meeting with governor was a success. "The governor
promised to look into the issue and take necessary action," they added.