Drive to clear RTI backlog comes a cropper

DNA: Gandhinagar: Saturday, August 04, 2012.

Three months after it was started, the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC)’s special drive to dispose of appeals and complaints hasn’t got too far.

Over 11,000 RTI (Right to Information) cases are pending with the GIC for hearing from across the state. But only 1,785 cases were taken up during the special drives organised at six district places.

The programme started in March, and till June 30 only 808 cases were disposed of, while the remaining 977 were kept pending for further hearing.

Despite the lacklustre showing, GIC officials are gung-ho about the drive. “This is a special programme to reduce the burden on applicants, while at the same time disposing of applications speedily. Many applicants have to travel 200 km to reach Gandhinagar for hearing on their RTI appeals. Such drives at different district places help save the time and money of applicants,” said an official.

However, the statistics of the last six drives at Surat, Amreli, Vadodara, Rajkot, Mehsana and Ahmedabad paint a dismal picture.

Though a total of 22 districts were covered, the disposal rate shows not much has been achieved. Explaining the poor performance, the official said, “It was aimed to dispose of petty RTI applications from a list of more than 11,000 pending cases so that the serious appeals could be pushed up the list. It is significant that 45% of the applications received during the drive were cleared on the spot.”

When DNA asked state chief information commissioner and former state chief secretary D Rajagopalan about the poor disposal rate, he said, “I generally don’t interact with the media, but since you have called me I will ask my officers to issue a press note to you.” RTI activists say the drives are not really helping aggrieved applicants.

“The GIC initiative is a step in the right direction, but Public Information Officers (PIOs) do not provide information even after the orders of the commission,” RTI activist Bharatsinh Zala says. He says the application is considered disposed of once the commission passes orders to provide information, but the applicant is left high and dry.