News Hub: Bangalore: Saturday, 28 February 2015.
Shankar R. Patil, Commissioner, Karnataka
Information Commission, was exasperated with the lack of preparedness of the
concerned Public Information Officers (PIOs) and their representatives at the
Zilla Panchayat meeting hall here on Friday. Mr. Patil was here as part of his
official State-wide tour for hearing cases at the respective district
headquarters.
He got irritated when he understood that the
representatives of PIOs in some cases did not have a basic knowledge either
about the RTI Act or about the particular case in which they were the
representing PIOs.
While hearing the cases, he observed that the
concerned PIOs had furnished the information sought by the applicant only after
knowing about his scheduled hearing at the district headquarters.
In some other cases, the absence of PIOs prompted
him to issue stern notices to the delinquent officers seeking explanation as to
why a penalty should not imposed on them under Section 20(1) of RTI Act.
In most of the cases, he ordered the respective
PIOs to provide the information to applicant he sought within 10 days.
Considering the inadequacies of PIOs at the lower
levels of the administrative apparatus across the State in handling
applications under RTI Act, Shankar R Patil, Commissioner, Karnataka
Information Commission, stressed on the need to inculcate a thorough knowledge
about the Act among PIOs through proper training and workshops.
In many cases, people are denied simple
information and forced to appeal before the concerned appellate authorities and
then file petitions before the Information Commission, because of a dearth of
knowledge about the Act among PIOs, he said.
This would lead not only to piling up of
casesbefore the Information Commission , but also the denial of people’s right
to information, he said.
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