The Times of India: Lucknow: Monday, July 02, 2012.
The Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) which has earned a dubious distinction of having a lot of complaints against it, in the State Information Commission (SIC), for not disposing RTI applications on time, however, has assured the commission that it would act in days to come.
Acting on the SIC's order, the LDA secretary has assured the commission that the authority would dispose the first appeals within 30 days, as mandated by the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The official, who is also the first appeals authority of LDA, was directed by the information commissioner (IC) Brijesh Kumar Mishra to appear personally before the commission on Thursday (June 28) and explain why the authority did not dispose the first appeals. The secretary is the first appeals authority of LDA.
Acting on the order, the official appeared before the commission and informed that there are about 17 first appeals pending with him. "He said that he was not told about the appeals. He has also assured he would dispose them on time," said the commissioner.
The commissioner ordered for the personal appearance of the LDA secretary on June 21, the day there were 27 complaints registered against LDA for hearing. The commission, in fact, has disposed off thousands of other complaints against LDA in the past. "It clearly indicates that the first appeals authority of LDA is not functional," said the commissioner.
The commissioner had directed the official to appear before the commission on Tuesday. But, the official did not appear, after which the commissioner sent a fresh order for him to appear on Thursday.
As per the rule, the first appeals authority, which is the senior-level official of the department, has to dispose the first appeals within 30 days of getting it. Under special circumstances, the time of disposal can be extended to 45 days. But, in most of the government departments, first appeal authority is almost redundant which is the reason why commission receives lot of complaints.
As laid down in the RTI Act, the applicant files the first appeal with the appellate authority of the department when he does not get the information from the public information officer. In case, the appellate authority does not respond, the applicant is required to file the complaint with the commission.
The commission receives hordes of complaints against LDA. The commissioner, therefore, directed the official to appear before the commission and inform about the pending first appeals with him.
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