Bangalore Mirror: Bangalore: Saturday,
May 28, 2016.
RTI reveals
despite incentives for officials, disposal rate at 6 cases a day.
Rs 80,000 in
basic salary, 125 per cent dearness allowance (DA), 30 per cent house rent
allowance (HRA), an air-conditioned office, a car and other amenities, besides
pension upon completion of three years - all this for a meagre six case
disposal rate per day.
Past state
information commissioners' performance, dug out by activists, has now triggered
a debate - if the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) is turning out to be a
rehabilitating centre for retired bureaucrats.
Bogged down
by the pendency row to get their cases seeking information heard and disposed,
RTI activists have taken the pendency issue to the new chief information
commissioner (CIC) seeking an effective case-disposal mechanism, to make the
commission - that is last stop to get information - more effective. Activists
who compiled statistics of past commissioners and the number of cases they have
disposed, alleged dismal disposal rate that has led to current pendency of
about 33,000 cases (by March 2016).
"On an
average, information commissioners, each, dispose about 1,800 cases in a year,
and 150 cases per month. It brings down the average to a mere six cases per day
of sitting. The state exchequer is spending huge amounts in the form of pay and
perks in the hope that common citizens gets the rightful information, in time,
under the RTI Act of 2005. But seeing the pendency, it is justified to call the
KIC as an inefficient white elephant," Wg Cdr GB Athri (rtd), an RTI
activist who has taken up the pendency after compiling the statistics, told
Bangalore Mirror.
The
performance card
The
activists, who have dug out the statistics found that between July 2005 and Jan
2016, nine information commissioners have served in the KIC. The total cases
disposed by these commissioners were 74,279. An average number of cases
disposed by each information commissioner, explained Athri, came down to 8,253.
With an average 25 working days every month, average number of cases disposed
every day by each commissioner during their five year tenure is around 5.5, he
said.Activists have now written to the new CIC, D N Narasimha Raju. The
performance in the past has resulted in huge pendency resulting in hundreds of
cases remaining pending for issue of initial notice from KIC for a period of
three to 22 months.
Athri has
made a mention of how he was kept waiting without information for over 48
months in over 30 cases. In around 19 cases, despite 51 months and ten
hearings, there have been no results. His case is not in isolation, he said, as
many activists were suffering the same plight.
"Cases
are not heard or kept pending for years. There are instances where
commissioners in the past chose and picked certain cases fearing their orders
would create controversy. The cases were heard as per their convenience. In the
process, a very small number of cases were disposed. At the end of day, the
commission should justify the public money spent on it as information delayed
is information denied. Hence the disposal rate has to be drastically increased
to ensure the commissioners, commission and public money spent for
information-grievance redressal mechanism is justified. We will be taking it up
with the CIC," Jayakumar Hiremath, another RTI activist, told Bangalore
Mirror.
Sources said
Raju is working out new ways to address the low disposal rate and ineffective
functioning. The change to ensure effective functioning of the commissioner and
reduction in pendency will be put in place after checking its viability and
considering pros and cons.
Retired
commissioners and the number of cases they disposed
Retired CIC
KK Misra tops the list with maximum disposals (14,025). Then comes Dr Shekar
Sajjanar with 9,461 cases disposed by him. JS Virupakshaiah follows him with a
disposal number of 9,380 cases. Then comes AKM Nayak, who has disposed 8,675
cases. M R Pujar had disposed 8,026 cases. T Rama Naik has disposed 7,933
cases. While D Thangaraj has disposed 7,738 cases, Dr H N Krishna had disposed
5,444 cases and K A Thippeswamy has disposed 3,597 cases.
.JPG)
.JPG)
