Friday, June 01, 2018

GUV URGED FOR EFFECTIVE EXECUTION OF RTI ACT

Daily Pioneer: Bhubaneswar: Friday, June 01, 2018.
RTI activists under the banner of the Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan (OSAA) on Thursday staged a dharna in front of the Raj Bhavan here under the leadership of OSAA convenor Pradip Pradhan in protest against the increasing incidences of attacks on the RTI activists and alleged malfunctioning of the Odisha Information Commission.
Later, they submitted a memorandum to the Governor urging him to ask the State Government to implement the RTI Act properly and ensure security to RTI activists.
They alleged that the implementation of RTI Act in Odisha from 2005 has suffered a severe setback due to anti-people Odisha RTI rules. The Form- A (Application for information) is complex and over-damaging one which is frightening the public from applying for information under the Act.
The column -2 asking for Father/Spouse name, colum-3 asking for permanent address and column-4 asking for particulars in respect of identity of applicant are very much personal details, the disclosure of which by an applicant before PIO has been forbidden under section 6(2) of the RTI act. Similarly, the demand for proof of citizenship from an applicant filling RTI application is also contrary to section 6(2) of RTI Act.
The State Government has also made arbitrary provision of charging Rs 20 and 25 towards first and second appeal fees respectively, which is illegal under the Act, they said.
They lamented that the State Government has not taken any step to change the columns and withdraw fees despite repeated requests made by various social organisations.
As per the section 4(1b) of the RTI Act, each public authority is required to voluntarily disclose 17 types information within 120 days. Likewise, as per the section 4(4) of the Act and this information would be disseminated in Odia language.
The State Government has developed a website, www.odisharti.in, to provide information but it is not being updated at all. The website doesn’t provide single correct information.
Even the voluntarily disclosed information of the office of the Speaker, Odisha Legislative Assembly, and Office of Governor, have not been updated. Not a single info is disseminated in Odia language, they lamented.
They too mentioned that more than 50 activists have been attacked and socially ostracized by influential and corrupt people during the last three years.
Their demands include immediate amendment of the Odisha RTI rules to make it citizen-friendly after due consultation with civil society groups and RTI activists, adoption of transparent procedure for appointment of Information Commissioners in line of the concerned Supreme Court judgement, formulation of an internal mechanism to ensure that each IO would dispose at least 3,000 a year and provision of penalty for erring PIOs, immediate registration of complaints lodged by RTI activists in police stations and action against must be registered immediately and investigated with action against culprits.