COUNTERVIEW: Ahmedabad: Sunday, April 29, 2018.
Even as
releasing its new report highlighting concerns regarding the performance of
information commissions in India, including the Central Information Commission
(CIC), a public hearing in Delhi organized by advocacy groups, Satark Nagrik Sangathan
and National Campaign for People's Right to Information, has confirmed its key
findings delays, skewed composition of information commissioners, vacancies,
lack of penalty imposition and transparency in their functioning.
The report,
‘Report Card of Information Commissions in India’, was released in the presence
of RK Mathur, India's chief information commissioner and Haryana information
commissioners, and right to information (RTI) users and activists from 14
states Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh,
Karnataka, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Kerala and Bihar.
The hearing
was told, while people have understood the value of the RTI Act and are using
it vibrantly for a variety of issues from demanding accountability in basic
entitlements to questioning the highest officers the functioning of information
commissions is a major bottleneck in the effective implementation of the RTI
law.
Chakradhar,
an RTI activist from Andhra Pradesh, testified that the state has no functional
state information commission for the past 11 months. After the bifurcation of
Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the state information commission (SIC) of Andhra
Pradesh continued to function as the information commission for both Telangana
and Andhra Pradesh. However, SIC became defunct in May 2017 when the serving
commissioners retired. No new commissioners have been appointed.
Abey George
from Kerala highlighted that the SIC is functioning with only one commissioner
even though nearly 14,000 appeals/complaints are pending with the commission
and it takes several years for a matter to come up for disposal.
Reena
testified that despite passage of more than 16 months since she had filed a
second appeal with CIC, the matter has yet to come up for hearing. A single
mother from Dakshinpuri, Delhi, she applied for scheduled caste (SC)
certificates for her children but was told by the revenue department that she
needed to produce the caste certificate of the father of her children as a
mother’s caste certificate would not suffice.
Reena filed
an RTI request in June 2016 seeking information about the documents required
for applying for a caste certificate for her children and the procedure to be
followed in case a single mother is not in possession of father’s caste
certificate. She filed a second appeal with CIC on November 30, 2016. However,
till date her matter has not been taken up by CIC.
Amitava
Chowdhury from West Bengal said, he filed an application under the RTI Act on
March 28, 2008 seeking information on the names and designations of persons
connected with appointment-related activities of the West Bengal College
Service Commission. However, no information was provided. Hence, he filed a
complaint before SIC on February 25, 2009. The complaint was finally heard on
March 7, 2018 more than nine years after it was filed!
Kusumlata, a
resident of Moti Lal Nehru slum in Delhi, said, she filed an RTI application
seeking information on her pension which was suddenly denied, without informing
her. She was provided incomplete information, which was also confirmed by the
first appellate authority. Despite non-compliance with the orders of the first
appellate authority, CIC refused to impose penalty.
Shankar, a
resident of Lal Gumbad, sought certified copy of his application for SC
certificate and copy of verification report of his certificate from the revenue
department though RTI on July 28, 2015. No reply was received. Therefore, he
filed first appeal on September 8, 2015. During the hearing on October 13,
2015, a direction was issued to provide information within seven days. As there
was no compliance, he approached CIC. While CIC issued a show case notice, till
date there is no follow-up.
.JPG)
.JPG)
