Indian
Express: Pune: Wednesday, 18 February 2015.
Right to
Information (RTI), borne out of the need to shake officialdom out of its
lethargy has taken a bumpy road, with complaints and counter-complaints
aplenty. There had been allegations about officials not giving the required
information within the given deadline, or about many frivolous and unnecessary
RTI petitions.
There was a
view that some officials perceived RTI as a fringe obligation and not part of
their serious duty. On the other hand, there were insinuations that many
applicants used RTI as a tool to further their greed, or to intimidate.
Of late,
another phenomenon is being witnessed. There has been a spurt in claims of
compensation made by applicants under section 19.8(b) of the RTI Act (Chapter
V).
Applicants
who do not get replies to their queries within the set deadline are empowered
to seek compensation. The basic idea, according to an RTI activist, should be
to make up for the loss of money and time of the applicant and similar
considerations.
Officials,
however, are witnessing a “drastic” increase in demand for compensation. Many
of them say that the number of compensation claims has gone up after the State
Information Commissioner (Konkan) ordered the Maharashtra State Electricity
Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) in November to pay Rs 5 lakh to an
applicant.
Thanksi
Thekkekara, SIC, Konkan, issued the order while hearing the second appeal
against the power distribution company. The applicant had sought information
about a transformer installed on his land, which the applicant claimed was done
without his prior permission. MSEDCL had failed to provide the documents and
the SIC fined the PIO and awarded the applicant a compensation as per section 19.8(b).
“While the
RTI law has a provision for compensation it has been rarely invoked and the
amount was not too high. Overall compensation clause is rarely used,” said a
senior official with SIC, Pune. Konkan SIC’s compensation is supposed to be the
highest since promulgation of the RTI Act in the state.
Following the
November decision, a 20 per cent increase in applicants seeking compensation
has been seen. The claims have been made during the second appeal and the
amount has increased from a few thousand rupees to tens of thousands or more.
“Following publicity of the order, many people especially those in urban areas
started claiming similar compensation against revenue, food supply, electricity
and industry departments,” said the officer.
SIC looks
into the merit of each case before taking a decision. Officers pointed out that
in some cases, people asked for compensation for paper, stamps, pen and other
stationery they used for filing applications.
RTI activist
Vijay Kumbhar said compensation awarded by SICs should be judicious.
“The
compensation should be in step with loss or mental harassment faced by the
applicant. Otherwise it would appear like a punishment,” he said.
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