Hindustan
Times: New Delhi: Sunday, 09 November 2014.
They lobbied
hard and pulled strings to get themselves appointed as transparency watchdogs.
But nearly three out of four state information commissions across the country
quietly skipped celebrating the RTI law’s ninth anniversary in October. The
department of personnel & training (DoPT) which funds and oversees
implementation of the right to information law said commissions in only eight
states had approached the Centre for the Rs. 3 lakh assistance available for
state information commissions to commemorate the RTI week during October 5-12.
It had funded
only seven because the eighth state, Punjab, had not provided utilisation
certificates of funds provided to it in previous years. The seven that got the
money include commissions in Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala,
Maharashtra and the three northeastern states; Nagaland, Mizoram and Sikkim.
The Centre
had asked all state commissions to send in their proposals earlier in August
for taking up various activities including conducting workshops, seminars and
competition in colleges on RTI related themes.
RTI activist
Lokesh Batra who accessed the information under the RTI Act said the
lackadaisical approach of the commissions was shocking.
“It is well
known that retiring bureaucrats lobby to become information commissioners for
the perks the post offers... But we had hoped for some commitment to the cause
of transparency too,” said Batra.
Central
Information Commissioners are treated at par with the election commissioners
and judges in matters of pay and post-retirement perks.
.JPG)
.JPG)
