Yahoo India News: New Delhi: Wednesday,
August 31, 2016.
In October,
2006, on completion of one year of the RTI law, the Central Information
Commission (CIC) and government organised the first ever RTI Convention with
clear objective to take stock of the evolution of the RTI Act, 2005 during
previous one year and to chart 'Way Ahead'.
It involved
sharing experience among the stakeholders, consisting of both sides i.e.
information providers (Officials from the Centre and state governments) and
information seekers of the civil society, using transparency law. A balance of
numbers of participant was ensured among the stakeholders to achieve realistic
outcome.
Thereafter,
it had becomes a yearly affair. (2014 was exception, when the convention could
not take place as the post of the Chief Information Commissioner, was lying
vacant.)
2015 CIC
Convention held for taking stock of 10 Years of Transparency Law will be more
remembered for the controversies it generated by inviting only about 10 RTI
practitioners of Civil Society from across the nation among 2000 invitees, thus
creating imbalance among the stakeholders.
It was
reported that 7 of the civil society members had boycotted the inaugural
session in solidarity with others who were not invited. The rest of invitees
were believed to be government officials from centre and states, including
State Information Commissioners (SICs).
From the
point of view of civil society, in the absence of representatives from
different regions of the nation, the convention was a failure as it did not
meet the objectives of the annual convention. At the most the convention could
be treated as conduct of training/awareness under Section 26 for the government
officials.
The analyses
of expenditure reveal 100 percent increase in the expenditure from the past.
CIC instead of maintaining austerity involving tax payers' money, in keeping
with the spirit of the RTI Act.
CIC had
incurred Rs.28.6 lakhs of taxpayer's money of which 13.5 lakhs has been spent
on hospitality items mainly for the government officials who attended the
Convention on duty and would have been entitled for TA/DA.
This
revelation was made in response to an RTI filed by Lokesh Batra. (ANI)