Times of India: Thiruvananthapuram: Thursday, April 18,
2013.
A right to
information (RTI) application from a woman has forced all government
institutions to strictly follow section 4 of the landmark legislation, which
stipulates them to maintain proper records.
It was on
July 11, 2011 that Kulathoor native M J Rekha filed an RTI application with the
KSRTC, seeking to know the number of vacant typist posts in the corporation and
if they have been reported to the PSC or not. The battle for information has
resulted in job opportunities for 44 youngsters in the corporation till date.
Rekha had
appeared for a PSC test for typist post in 2010, the result of which was
published in March 2011. However, she could join anywhere as a majority of the
101 government institutions were not publishing the vacancies of typists in their
offices.
"The
reply from KSRTC was unsatisfactory. It said the number of vacancies has not
been counted after 2006. I then approached state information commissioner M N
Gunavardhanan," she said.
At a hearing
on February 7, 2013, the information commissioner observed that the KSRTC has
failed to follow Section 4 of the RTI Act, that every public authority shall
maintain its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and form that
facilitates the RTI and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be
computerised are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of
resources, computerised and connected through a network all over the country on
different systems.
The
commissioner also ordered KSRTC to publish its details that come under RTI Act
on its website within 30 days.
The
corporation has updating these details on its website for the past one month.
Commission
sources said a similar order had been given to all departments. "Now, one
can get details of vacancies with just a click. The non-declaration or
non-publishing of vacancies could have affected the job opportunities of
hundreds," Rekha said.
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