DNA:
Ahmedabad: Saturday, October 13, 2012.
Seven years
after the Right to Information (RTI) Act came into force, activists in Gujarat
are ruing the fact that even basic work concerned with the Act is yet to be
implemented in the state.
Prime among
their concern is the pro-active disclosure clause and the almost defunct status
of the first appellate authority mechanism. Speaking at an interaction
organised in the city, about how the RTI has helped and hindered those in need
of it, Harinesh Pandya, of Janpath said that even after seven years of RTI,
most government departments remain unaware of the pro-active disclosure.
“Under
pro-active disclosure, every department has to keep ready a set of information
under various clauses. You need not even wait for the mandatory 30 days to get
such information. Yet many of the RTI queries continue to seek these same
information and various departments are either unwilling or unaware about
keeping this information updated,” said Pandya.
He said another
big hindrance was the almost defunct status of the first appellate authority
which is the first body to look into a complaint if information is denied under
RTI. “But in most cases the first appellate authority never bothers to take up
the matter within the given time frame and RTI applicants end up approaching
the chief information commissioner, adding to the pendency,” said Pandya.
Pankti Jog of
Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel said that 45% of the cases that reach the state
information commission end up there because the first appellate authority
either did not conduct a hearing of did not pass any order.
She said that
an analysis of the calls received on their RTI helpline showed that most
applications were being filed with regards to land and property encroachments.
She said that government officials were also increasingly making use of the
‘third party info’ clause to avoid giving information. She said that an
analysis of the 1.32 lakh calls received by the organisation’s helpline showed
that the number of RTI users had moved up to Rs15 lakh and substantial number
of them were from rural areas and were women as well.
Speaking
about how RTI helped him, Arif Sheikh, a former CRPF man said that the mere
filing of an application seeking the status of his full and final payment
helped him get the same within four days. “I had been seeking my full and final
payment due to me for the last 16 months and got no response. However, a single
RTI plea ensured that I got my final dues within 4 days,” said Sheikh.
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