Indian Express: New Delhi: Saturday, October 11, 2014.
BJP-ruled
Madhya Pradesh and Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal are among the worst states
with regard to providing information under the RTI Act, a study by an NGO has
found.
As per the
study, the pendency in Information Commissions (ICs) of the states is such that
it could take around 60 years for an RTI application to come up for appeal in
MP while it could take around 18 years in West Bengal.
A backlog of
over 1.98 lakh cases, including disposal of appeals and complaints, is pending
in 23 ICs across the country, says the study, conducted by NGO RTI Assessment
and Advocacy Group.
“It is a
matter of great concern that the Central Information Commission (CIC) is
headless. The post has been lying vacant for month now,” said one of the
research coordinators, activist Shekhar Singh.
As far as
pendency in terms of number of cases is concerned, UP tops the list with over
48,000 cases, followed by Maharashtra with over 32,000 cases, the study says.
The CIC, meanwhile, had 26,115 cases pending as of December 2013. “There were
no backlogs in Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura,” it said.
Maharashtra
received the highest number of appeals and complaints (73,968) during 2012-2013,
followed by the CIC (62,723) and UP (62,008).
.JPG)
.JPG)
