Shiv Sahay Singh : Wed Oct 13 2010: Kolkata:
Exactly five years ago, the Right To Information Act came into effect in the country. But in West Bengal, the State Information Commission, which has the responsibility to make the Act the effective, has instead become defunct in these years.
Since August 5, 2010, the day Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Arun Bhattacharya retired, the commission has not conducted any hearing. “After the CIC retired on August 5, there is only one information commissioner. As per section 15 (2) of the Act there should be a CIC and other state information commissioners. With only one information commissioner, the commission is not operative,” said a senior official of the commission. And that’s precisely is the situation in State Information Commission in West Bengal. After the CIC retired, Sujit Sarkar is the only information commisoner. In the last two months, the state government failed to appoint a second information commisoner when it has already spent Rs 13.80 lakh on the commission.
In the last five years too, the commission’s performance has been far from satisfactory. While the Central Information Commission disposed 50,002 cases till June 2010, in West Bengal only 767 cases have been disposed of so far. Take the example of a small state like Orissa. In 2009, the information commission of Orissa disposed of over 1,000 cases alone.
While one Central Information Commissioner settled 1,111 cases every year, in West Bengal a state information commissioner settled somewhere between 110 and 120 cases annually.
Even while considering the number of penalities imposed, states like Orrissa have imposed 264 penalities but in West Bengal the number of fines imposed has not even touched 20. RTI activists blame it on lack of political will to implement the Act. “Both the state government as well as the Opposition has shown total apathy to implementation of the RTI Act in the last five years,” said Anindya Kishore an RTI activist. “With such a dismal record of the commission, we have missed a huge opportunity in all these years,” he added.
The activists say there has been no stress on making the people aware of the Act in the state. Even government departments are not aware about it, they add.
With criticisms pouring in over its ineffectivness, the SIC now plans to launch an awareness drive about the RTI. “We will take up an awareness campaign after the Pujas about the implementation of RTI Act. The commission will reach out to the people in districts and involve all officers to create awareness,” said Sujit Sarkar, State Information Commisoner. Sarkar, who was appointed in December 2009, is hopeful that the commission will play a more proactive role in future.
But RTI activist like Sabir Ahamed are not too optimistic about the commission’s plan. “There is no stress on proactive disclosure where government departments should disclose the information on their own. Many important government offices have so far not even appointed a public information officers (PIOs). Moreover, in cases where PIOs are there, the information does not come in the requisite 30 days,” said Ahamed.
They say that going by numbers, RTI implementation may paint a sorry picture but at the same time there has been some flashes of hope like the case of Kartick Rajwar, an agricultural labour in Purulia who was denied payment and subsequently the BDO was fined Rs 25,000. Another case was that of IPS officer Nazrul Islam in which the state government was fined Rs 50,000 for denying information. “We wish that in years to come, more such success stories take place, and people can use their right,” added Ahamed.
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