Deccan
Chronicle: Thiruvananthapuram: Monday, 13 October 2014.
Even nine
years after the Right to Information Act came into being, most Government
agencies in the State are yet to make voluntary disclosure of information,
which is one of the key ingredients of the Act aimed at bringing in
transparency.
According to
the Act, all Government departments and public sector undertakings are supposed
to publish details like employees’ names, designation, qualification and
salary, fund utilisation and status of projects on their websites. Even nine
years after the implementation of the Act, only a few departments have
published these details, that too after repeated directives from the State
Information Commission.
"Many
officials complain they were burdened by a large number of applications. It’s
true that a good number of RTI applications pertain to personal matters. But
had all Government agencies published basic details on the websites and kept
updating them, their work would have
been easier", said State Chief Information Commissioner Siby Mathews. As
of now about 8,875 RTI cases are pending, of which 2,423 are appeals.
One major
reason why RTI applications keep piling up in Kerala is because of the inaction
on the part of the first appeal authority.
"The law
only makes the Public Information Officer (PIO) answerable for any delay in
giving information sought under the Act, whereas no action is taken against any
lapse from the first appeal authority (usually the immediate superior of PIO).
Hence many first appeal authorities do not seriously consider appeals against
PIOs," said Siby Mathews.
Kerala RTI
Federation general secretary D.B. Binu flayed that some state information
commission members were often maintaining a soft stand towards officials to act
against the spirit of RTI Act.
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