Business Standard: National: Tuesday,
April 26, 2016.
About 24 per
cent of public authorities, under the Right to Information Act, have failed to
file their annual report (returns), a mandatory provision of the transparency
act, with the Central Information Commission, an RTI activist has claimed.
In his letter
to Minister of State for PMO, Jitendra Singh and Cabinet Secretary, Commodore
(retd) Lokesh Batra has alleged that Central Information Commission (CIC)
report for 2014-15 shows authorities were not complying with the mandatory
provisions of the RTI Act asking them to file annual returns.
Annual
returns are detailed reports of the work done by the public authorities for
RTI.
Only 76 per
cent of public authorities under the RTI Act have filed their mandatory returns
with the CIC, Batra claimed.
"...The
perusal of CIC's Annual Report 2014-2015, brings out serious lapses regarding
non-compliance of the government directions/provisions of the RTI Act, 2005, by
the Public Authorities (PAs) of the Central Government. The said report was
recently laid in the houses of Parliament," he alleged.
Batra said
there was a huge reduction in the "number of Public Authorities registered
with CIC".
"For
example: in 2012-2013, if the number was 2,333; in 2014-2015, the number came
down to 2,030. This amounts to Public Authorities ignoring the Act of Parliament.
Of the above abridged number of 2,030 PAs registered; only 76 per cent
(average) have submitted their 'Annual Returns' to CIC. It shows the public
authorities have no respect for the Law of the land," he said.
This has
resulted in inaccurate presentation of health of the "Transparency
Law" in the Parliament, he claimed.
Talking to
PTI, he claimed office of the Minister and Cabinet Secretary has assured him of
action.
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