Times
of India: Chennai: Wednesday, 08 July 2015.
The Right to
Information (RTI) is turning into an increasingly opaque idea as more posts of
the information commissioner are falling vacant.
Vacancies for
the post in the country increased from 14% in 2014 to 20% in 2015, reveals a
nation-wide study conducted by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), an
NGO.
According to
the report, the number of information commissioners in the country has been
reduced from 120 in 2014 to 111 now. The office of state information commission
(SIC) in Jharkhand has the maximum number of vacancies (four) followed by Tamil
Nadu and Gujarat (three each).
The study has
found four SICs - Tamil Nadu, Goa, Odisha and Uttarakhand - continue to be
headless as the governments are yet to appoint a new chief information
commissioner (CIC).
The total
pendency of second appeals and complaints before SICs in 16 states has crossed
1.75 lakh, mainly due to delay in the appointment of information commissioners.
Venkatesh
Nayak of CHRI said there are serious attempts by the governments to tamper with
the objectives of RTI Act which is meant for better transparency. He says 76%
of the CICs are retired IAS officers, despite a 2013 Supreme Court order that
all states must include candidates with other specialisations.
"Nearly
60% (35 of 59) of the information commissioners appointed after the Supreme
Court order are from All India Services, and a few from the state civil
services. This proportion is less than half (46%) in 2014. This shows
governments are not following the direction of the apex court," he said.
Section 15
(5) of the RTI Act states, "The state chief information commissioner and
the state information commissioners shall be persons of eminence in public life
with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology , social
service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and
governance." But most governments appoint retired IAS who they find
favourable during their service, said Nayak.
Interestingly,
information commissioner in Arunachal Pradesh is a former president of the
Arunachal Weightlifting Federation. "Given the much lighter load of second
appeals and complaints filed before the SIC in Arunachal Pradesh compared to
other states, the choice of a weightlifter, disregarding the fields of
knowledge and experience listed under Section 15 (5) of the RTI Act is
difficult to understand," the report said.
It adds,
"Except for Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat no other SIC has made the
effort to launch a bilingual website for the convenience of the residents of
the state in which it is functioning."
Only 20% (6
of 29) of information commissioners including CIC and the SICs of Bihar,
Gujarat, Tripura and Uttarakhand have provided online facilities for submitting
appeals or complaints for the applicants. About 31% of SICs including those in
Tamil Nadu have not disclosed their budgetary details on the website. Only
12.6% of information commissioners (11 out of 87) serving across the country
are women.TN has one woman member in the commission.
Nayak said
authorities should increase the representation of women in the information
commissions. "Government must also look for the track record of serving or
retired civil servants who are considered for the post of information
commissioner. Such officers must not be considered for appointment unless they
have a demonstrable record of promoting greater transparency and accountability
in such organisations."
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