E-Pao.net:
Imphal: Thursday, October 25, 2012.
Implementation
of Rights to Information Act has become a big flop show in Manipur with hearing
for all the complaints and appeals filed through RTI before Manipur Information
Commission (MIC) deferred indefinitely from October 17 .
As per an
order by Supreme Court, hearing to all the enquiries should be conducted by a
two-member bench from the MIC but the commission now has only one member owing
to which the hearing process has been stopped, State Information Commissioner
Ch Birendra told a section of media.
He informed
MIC has only the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and the State Information
Commissioner but the post of the CIC has remained vacant ever since RK
Angousana retired from the post on September 12, 2011 .
In this connection,
the MIC has already requested the state Government to fill up the vacant post
but no step has been taken yet till today to facilitate it, Birendra lamented.
Under this
circumstance, the MIC cannot take up any proceeding with regard to the complaints
and appeals filed before it through Right to Information Act as it would be
against the order of the apex court, he added.
Another order
of Supreme Court says the vacant post of the CIC should be filled up by a Chief
Justice of the High Court or a Judge of the apex court.
In the case
of the post of State Information Commissioner (SIC), a Judge of the High Court
should fill it up, he informed.
Considering
the order of the apex court, it would naturally make difficult for the state to
fill up the vacant CIC post, Birendra further added and drew the attention of
the state Government over the affair.
He added the
MIC received a total of 38 complaints and six appeals during the period between
September 12 and October 17 this year, and another 10 complaints were received
from October 17-24 but without a single appeal.
In response
to a query on inability of the commission to provide information to RTI
petitioners in time, he said such problem is obviously caused by filing of
complaints more than necessary and also seeking of unnecessary information from
various Government Departments.
However, the
state Information Commissioner highlighted the need of seeking information
through RTI in proper ways and said all the Government Department should
provide the sought information in time at the same time.
Meanwhile,
talking to Huiyen Lanpao, State Information Commissioner RK Angousana said that
the failure of the state government to fill the post of State Chief Information
Commissioner has crippled the proceeding of the Commission.
The matter
has been intimated to the government but due to the directives to appoint the
post from among the retired Chief Justices of a high court the government too
is not in the position to find the right person as there is only one High Court
in the entire 8 North Eastern State of India.
Besides the
upper age limit for the post is 65 years and some of the retired judges who are
eligible for the said post had already crossed the upper age limit.
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