Economic
Times: New Delhi: Wednesday, 24 June 2015.
Transparency-watchdog
Central Information Commission (CIC) will soon get a new office in the national
capital, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said today.
Land has been
allocated to the CIC at the old JNU campus and the estimated cost of
construction is around Rs 42.53 crore.
"The
added feature of the complex would be that all the offices related to the CIC
would be housed under single roof in the same premises," said Singh,
Minister of State for Personnel, after newly appointed Chief Information
Commissioner Vijai Sharma met him.
Presently,
CIC has two offices, one at old JNU campus and other at Bhikaji Cama Place, but
they lack space.
Singh said
the government was committed to bring in maximum transparency and therefore,
facilitating easy and conducive functioning of the CIC was a step in that
direction.
He said
emphasis on e-governance and placing all the relevant information in public
domain has considerably improved transparency as well as accountability.
Refuting
criticism in certain quarters that there was undue delay in disposing off RTI
applications, Singh said that a mechanism will be evolved in course of time for
their early disposal.
"The
very fact that the RTI applications are increasing day-by-day is also a tribute
to healthy democratic functioning and the readiness of the government to
respond to every request for information to be placed in public domain,"
he said.
Sharma
informed the Minister that, as on date, the number of RTI complaints and
appeals were quite high but different methods were being worked out to reduce
the pendency.
There were
40,387 appeals and complaints pending disposal in the CIC, according to an
official data as on today.
Sharma also
discussed the plans to observe the 10th anniversary of enactment of RTI Act,
which is on October 12, this year.
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