Times of India: Panaji: Friday, December 15, 2017.
To ensure
efficient functioning of the Right to information (RTI) Act, the Goa State
Information Commission has directed the government to appoint the chief town
planner as the first appellate authority (FAA) instead of the chairman or
chairperson of the respective planning and development authority (PDA), who is
often an MLA or a political party office bearer.
In the
alternative, the member secretary of the PDA (who is presently the PIO) can
also be designated as the first appellate authority and in such scenarios the
public information officer can either be the deputy town planner or assistant
engineers or architectural planning assistants, state information commissioner
Juino De Souza stated in the order.
"The RTI
act 2005 clearly specifies that the first appellate authority should be an
officer higher in rank to the PIO. A chairman or chairperson of the PDA
rendering honorary service are not government officers and as such no action
can be taken against them should they fail to perform the duty case upon them
as per the RTI act," de Souza said in the order copies of which have been
chief secretary and secretary, town and country planning (TCP).
He added that
the chairman or chairperson have no fixed timings and no proper RTI training
imparted to them which is necessary to improve the efficacy and ensure a fair
non biased decision for disposing first appeals within a defined time frame.
In state
government corporations, it is never the chairman but the senior most officer
who is the head of the department such as the managing director or general
manager and the same yardstick can be applied in the case of PDAs.
Nelson
Fernandes approached the commission after six RTI applications regarding
constructions in Margao and Fatorda filed before the south goa planning and
development authority went unanswered. He received no reply when he went in
appeal to the first appellate authority. He stated that the FAA visits the
office once a week on Tuesday and is busy with meetings and other PDA matters.
The
commission has directed the FAA to dispose of his appeals after hearing the
party within 30 days of the first hearing.