Times of India: Chennai: Wednesday, August 20, 2014.
Nine years
after the Right to Information (RTI) Act came into effect, the Tamil Nadu State
Information Commission (TNSIC) has uploaded annual reports on its website
(www.tnsic.gov.in). Disappointingly, however, is that the latest reports are of
2008.
TOI had
carried a series of articles about the delay in uploading annual reports of the
information commission on its website. RTI activists had been demanding the
same. But the commission had so far been reluctant to upload annual reports
even once though Act came into effect on 2005.
An annual
report of a commission is to declare the number of RTI applications received by
public information officers (PIOs) of government departments, cases disposed of
and fines imposed on PIOs by the commission for violation of rules under the
RTI Act.
According to
the annual report for 2008, the commission received 41,520 letters from
applicants, of which it had issued orders on 18,016 appeals in 2008. "Show
cause notices were issued against PIOs in 355 cases. It had recommended
disciplinary action against public authorities in 90 cases and imposed penalty
in respect of 28 public authorities," said the report.
The
commission's annual report shows that the revenue department received the
maximum number of RTI applications - 27,178 - among all government departments
in the state, followed by school education (11,714) and home, prohibition and
excise department with 10,365 applications in 2008.
The
commission had imposed maximum fines against public authorities in revenue department
(2.27 lakh) for delaying and denying information to applicants. It is followed
by PIOs of rural development department and housing department, which were
penalised with 1.24 lakh and 1.13 lakh in fines.
Many RTI
activists welcomed the commission's move, but said they were disappointed with
the delay in updating information. Vijay Anand, coordinator of 5th Pillar, an
NGO, said: "Ideally, information commission should set an example for
other departments by making proactive disclosures. But it is re yet to update
its own information. We hope remaining reports will be updated."
Asked why the
revenue department tops in RTI application, Anand said: 'Every individual is a
victim of the department because of the delay in getting services." A
survey by NGO Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative found that Tamil Nadu,
Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura have failed
to table reports of their RTI cases in the assembly or put them online, which
is mandatory under the RTI Act.
State chief
information commissioner K S Sripathi recently pleaded helplessness over the
information not being made public, saying his department had sent reports till
2010-11 to the government, which tabled reports only till 2006-07 in the
assembly.
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