Thursday, April 23, 2015

CIC Complains to Guv about Spl Chief Secretary's Directive to AP Collectors

Indian Express: Hyderabad: Thursday, 23 April 2015.
Hitting back hard at the lackadaisical attitude of the state bureaucracy that has turned a blind eye towards the implementation of Right To Information Act, chief information commissioner (CIC) Jannat Hussain and his state information commissioners (SIC) met governor ESL Narasimhan on Wednesday at the Raj Bhavan to brief him on the ongoing situation. SICs P Vijaya Babu, M Ratan, Varre Venkateswarulu, Lam Thantiya Kumari, Vijaya Nirmala and S Imtiyaz Ahmed accompanied Jannat Hussain.
The SICs of Andhra Pradesh Information Commission, which falls in the schedule ten of the AP Reorganisation Act, had previously lodged complaints with the governor and AP chief secretary IYR Krishna Rao. They informed the governor about the practice of “denigration and degradation”  of the Information Commissioners.
“There is a directive from the Special chief secretary (GAD) Lingaraj Panigrahi to all commissioners and district collectors of AP asking them to ignore the blackmailing threats from SICs. He has cited the case of an age-old Blue Book formula to say that commissioners were not equal  to chief secretary in protocol,”  Vijaya Babu said. According to him, the RTI Act clearly states that all other Acts are overridden by it.
Under Section 16(5) of  the RTI Act 2005, the status of the State Information Commissioner shall be of that of a Chief Secretary. And State Information Commissioner is required to take up hearings of the complaints and appeals as per the provisions under Sections 18 and 19 of the said Act and to impose penalties against the defaulting Public Information Officers under Section 20 of the RTI Act 2005. An Information Commissioner is also vested with Quasi Judicial powers while discharging duties.
According to Vijaya Babu,  the governor told them that he was not aware of the said directive to all district collectors of Andhra Pradesh. He said that the matter would be looked into. “We have repeatedly said that a section of IAS officers do not want to come out of the colonial legacy and respect the Act and judgments of the Information Commissioners. To uphold the spirit of RTI Act, to prevent it from dilution and being turned into a toothless body, the issue should be looked into without any further delay,” Vijaya Babu added.