Indian Express: Chennai: Tuesday, July 10, 2018.
After a delay
of three years, the Tamil Nadu Information Commission tabled its the annual
report for 2015 in the Assembly on Monday. Though the Right to Information Act
states that the Commission should submit a report annually, this norm has not
been followed.The Commission stated that though it forwarded this report in
2016 itself, the government had delayed tabling it in the Assembly. The reasons
behind this delay were vaguely termed as administrative and no further
explanation was given.
The Revenue
and police departments have received the highest number of RTI petitions
in 2015, stated the report. The Revenue
department recorded 1,24,930 applications out of which 74,017 were disposed of
after giving information and 42,087 transferred to other departments. On the other hand, the police department
received a total of 54,995 applications out of which 48,055 were given
information.The commission also listed out suggestions to a handful number of
departments to improve the enforcement of the RTI Act.
CMDA
officials ‘slow and casual’
The
Commission in its report stated that applications addressed to the CMDA’s
officials are often slow and casual. This is due to most documents on which RTI
queries are to be answered are with other units under the department. As the
main PIO doesn’t have information about other units, there is a delay in giving
a response. Also the PIO is held
responsible during an enquiry for not providing information which he has no access
to.
College
fund disclosure
The
commission recommended that the designated Public Information officers (PIO) in
every college should publish in their website information about grants received
from the University Grants Commission and expenses incurred under each
department. This can be done under section 4 of the RTI act.
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