Economic Times: New Delhi: Thursday, January 11, 2018.
The Central
Information Commission (CIC) will soon have to function with just 60 per cent
of sanctioned strength of information commissioners. With yet another
information commissioner retiring on January 15, the transparency watchdog will
have just seven commissioners, including the chief, and four vacancies.
As
information commissioner Manjula Prasher retires on Monday, the commission will
be down to its lowest strength in three years. This may affect the pendency at
CIC. At present, 24,638 appeals are pending in CIC and the waiting time is between
six months and one year.
Though the
government had advertised for hiring information commissioners in September
2016 three months before the first post fell vacant in December 2016 no new
commissioner has been appointed. Since the advertisement for the job, three
information commissioners have retired - MA Khan Yusufi (December 2016), Basant
Seth (February 2017) and Sharat Sabharwal (September 2017) Prasher will be the
fourth.
Right to
Information activists said this is another way of making the commission, the
final appellate authority for RTI Act, defunct. Anjali Bhardwaj of National
Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) said, "Just like
justice delayed is justice denied, information delayed is information denied.
It seems like for every appointment at the commission, rights activists have to
approach the court. Even the last appointments were made after a directive from
the court."
Bhardwaj said
activists have even written to PM Narendra Modi pointing out the problem.
"Our RTI was converted into a grievance and the response that we received
was simply 'matter is under consideration'," she said.
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