The Hitavada: MP: Thursday, July 12, 2018.
A public
campaign has been started by RTI activists in State to strengthen ‘Right to
information’ act. The RTI activist forum claimed that there are about 15,000
pending cases of RTI before the State Information Commission.They said that now
forum is working on strengthening RTI in Madhya Pradesh through community
involvement. They have chalked out few suggestions which includes demand for
appointment of Information Commissioner and action and transparency on RTI
pending cases and also to run parallel running a signature campaign in entire
state.
They said
that thousands of cases are pending before the State Information Commission in
Bhopal Madhya Pradesh but the state government is not filling posts of the
Commissioner. Even if the cases are heard before the commission, the time limit
also matters very much. There are pending cases in Madhya Pradesh for the last
seven years. It is also a unfortunate that in Madhya Pradesh the important
responsibility of providing information to the common man, is not giving the
information itself.They alleged that in Madhya Pradesh, the condition of
Section 4 (self-declaration) is also very bad, most of the departments have not
corrected their information.
The Madhya
Pradesh Right to Information campaign (MCPRI) has taken up other issues claims
Kanerar Anjali Bharadwaj from Delhi, the national campaigner for the Right to
Information Act forum. She said that many people have come forward on
transparency and accountability and are demanding information but the
governments is yet to take substantial measure. Bhardwaj further alleged that
government has not yet implemented the Whistle Blower Protection Act. Another
activist Amrita Johari from Delhi said that they have undertaken a study the
implementation of Right to Information across the country. It showed that in
Madhya Pradesh Information Commission would take about 60 years to deal with
the pending cases with the pace it is been taking the issue. But, on the
contrary, the information sought by the Madhya Pradesh Information Commission
for a recent study has not been given. Madhya Pradesh’s page is empty in the
national report of 2018.
RTI activist
Rajiv Khare, who came from Satna said that every year 40-60 lakh people are
applying under the Right to Information Act but not getting information. Right
to Information activists are being treated as enemies. Sushil Jaswani, who came
from Shahdol said that when the Central Commission has decided that he will
hear 3,200 cases in a year, then Madhya Pradesh Information Commission should
make such a scale for himself. Ashish Chaturvedi of Gwalior who extracted the
crucial documents related to the VYAPAM, said that the governments are
monitoring RTI activist and the government should give protection. He said that
Public Information Officers leak information in many cases. In the matter of
leaking information to the Public Information Officer, we have probably filed
the first FIR in the country.
Roli Shivhare
, associated with MCPRI said that the need for an organization of information
rights activists in the state was felt for all the above issues, in this
connection an organization has been formed which is Madhya Pradesh Right to
Information Jan Abhiyan. This organization currently has partners with 15
districts. While working on issues related to transparency and accountability,
this organization will keep an eye on the functioning of the commissions
besides making the public aware. RTI activists will raise their voices against
attacks on RTI activist and also gearing up to approach to authorities with
memorandum.
.JPG)
.JPG)
