Times
of India: Bengaluru: Saturday, 06 December 2014.
The process
of filing RTI applications and getting replies does not seem to be too smooth
an affair. This is highlighted in the fact that the RTI website run by the State
government is besotted with problems galore and is no highway to information.
The public
are already having issues in availing their Right to Information on the
websites of the different government websites.
The website,
http://dpar-rti.kar.nic.in/, owned and maintained by the Karnataka government
Secretariat, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, was created to
enable citizens to quickly search for information on the details of first
appellate authorities, public information officers (PIOs), among others.
However, RTI activists and citizens complain that the site is not serving any
purpose as contact numbers of PIOs are missing. “The information on the site is
not updated since 2006. Nobody knows who is monitoring it. Also, some of the
PIOs mentioned there are not equipped enough to answer the queries and do not
know about the issues highlighted in RTI applications,” said Vincent G, an RTI
activist.
The staff at
the Karnataka unit of the National Informatics Centre, which has designed the
website, said that it was the duty of the government departments to update the
details and contact numbers.
“We have
issued user accounts to each of the departments, wherein they can connect to
the server to add or change information. We have also trained the staff of the
respective departments on handling the accounts,” said a staff member.
Members of
the RTI Activists’ State Committee (RTIASC) maintained that as per the RTI
Act, 2005, a
directory comprising details of all PIOs and other officers has to be
published. Also, the email ids of PIOs should be mandatorily published on
government websites. However, none of these rules are followed. There are also
complaints galore on the functioning and negligent attitude of the PIOs.
Jude Rajesh
Ferrao, president of the Citizens’ Welfare Association (HRBR 2nd Block),
maintained that he had filed 15 RTI applications to get details of the building
plan sanctions of unauthorised structures in his area. However, he did not get
responses from the PIO, East, of the BBMP.
“RTI has
become a joke as it is not taken seriously. Also, the contact numbers of the
PIOs are those of their offices and speaking to them directly is difficult,”
Ferrao said.
Veeresh
Bellur, RTI activist and convenor of RTIASC, said that as per the Act, RTI
queries should be replied to within 30 days. But unfortunately, it is not
happening in most cases.
“The
Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Janaspandana and Karnataka
Information Commission (KIC) are not effectively implementing the RTI Act,” he
said.
Sources from
KIC said that in the past, circulars had been issued to the departments to
declare details of their PIOs along with their contact numbers on government
websites. But a few of the departments continue to remain ignorant.
BBMP to
shut centralised RTI cell
Bruhat
Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, the civic agency which administers the State
capital, is planning to close down its centralised Right to Information Cell.
The Cell,
operating for the last nine years, has benefitted thousands of RTI applicants.
Palike Commissioner M Lakshminarayana has issued a circular stating that RTI
applications will have to submitted directly to the public information officers
and first appellate authorities, as mandated by the RTI Act.
It may be
recalled that BBMP had earned accolades from Karnataka Information Commission
for setting up the Centralised Information Centre bringing transparency in the
functioning of civic agency. The commission had even asked other departments to
emulate BBMP model.
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