Times of India: Kolkata: Saturday, January 06, 2018.
It's one of
the most powerful weapons in the hands of an ordinary citizen, but one that's
rarely wielded in Bengal. The state has an abysmal record when it comes to
filing RTI applications, staying in the lowest rungs of the nationwide ladder
of the number of RTI applications filed over an 11-year period.
A survey
conducted by Transparency International India in collaboration with the Union
ministry of human resources and state governments has found out that only
77,302 RTI applications had been registered in Bengal, the fourth lowest in the
country, in the period between 2005 and 2016. Only Jharkhand, Goa and Jammu and
Kashmir rank below Bengal. Maharashtra tops the list with 54,95,788
applications followed by Karnataka with 22,78,082, Kerala with 21,92,571, Tamil
Nadu with 19,23,388 and Gujarat with 10,36,065.
When the
average figures are taken into account, the picture is even more pathetic.
Bengal, on an average, has seen just 663.8 RTI applications per year, just
above Manipur's, with an annual average of 251.88. The other states that have a
poor average are Mizoram (1030.8), Meghalaya (1209.81) and Sikkim (1264.66),
but the crucial factor is that all of these states are smaller than Bengal in
terms of area and population density. Alternatively, the bigger states all have
a healthier average than Bengal: Maharashtra tops the list with 5,49,578.8,
nearly 750 times more than Bengal; Karnataka 2,27,808.2; Tamil Nadu 2,13,709.7;
Kerala 1,99,324.64; and Bihar, with 96,024.67 cases, are the top five states on
the list.
The Right to
Information (RTI) Act, 2005, which replaced the Freedom of Information Act,
2002, is an incredibly empowering tool, designed to give the ordinary citizen
the tools to cut through layers of obfuscation and red tape in his/her right to
demand answers. Under this act, any citizen may request information from a
"public authority" which, in turn, is required to reply expeditiously
or within 30 days. If the department doesn't respond to the appeal, the person
has the right to make a second appeal to the state information commission. The
state information commission will call the public information officer (PIO) of
the department concerned and conduct a hearing. The state chief information
commissioner has the power to penalize the PIO or the assistant PIO for not
responding to the appeal. This law was passed by Parliament on June 15, 2005
and fully came into force on October 12, 2005.
Though it's
been 12 years since the law has been passed, the figures hint at just one
thing: Bengal has failed to take any real advantage of the tool. Basudeb Banerjee,
the state's chief information commissioner, says he wouldn't comment on the
appalling figures published by Transparency International India, but readily
gave out his own set of figures. "It's not true [that Bengal has failed to
take advantage of RTI]," he says. "We have more than 8,000 cases
pending, including 3,500 second-appeals. We are disposing of them as early as
possible. This proves that people are aware of RTI and are using it. We only
get the second appeals, the appeals made after the first appeals is responded
by the government department concerned. So, if it is sorted at the first level,
we don't need to intervene."
Senior
officials of the information commission are, however, of the opinion that lack
of awareness and slow disposal rates were the main reasons for people's
aversion to RTI.
That Bengal
lacks awareness is evident from a survey conducted on 20 major states by
CMS-ICS in collaboration with the Centre. According to the survey, only 54% of
Bengal's citizens are aware of RTI, while Haryana tops the list with 93%
followed by Punjab with 84%, Odisha 83%, Maharashtra with 80% and Karnataka
with 79%. Bengal ranked 14th on the list. Interestingly enough, the survey
states that in 2005, when the act came into force, all these states had a poor
awareness percentage. Only 3% people of Haryana knew about RTI and the figures
for Punjab, Odisha, Maharashtra and Karnataka were 10%, 4%, 14% and 15%
respectively. Only 2% of Bengal's people then knew about RTI.
"Things
have changed in other states but not Bengal," says a senior information
officer. "The reason is that there has not been any government initiative
to promote this effective medium. Special efforts should be made by public
authorities themselves in case there is a problem while availing oneself of
select public services. RTI commissioners themselves should promote the RTI Act
among those sections or pockets. The Information Commission should undertake
special analyses of applications filed in the previous year. State information
commission should coordinate with the state government responsible for
implementation of Service Delivery Guarantee Act, with specific reference to
certain identified public services," he added.
The poor
disposal rate is also a prominent reason why people stay away from filing RTI
applications. In Bengal, if you file an application, you will have to wait
approximately 17 years 10 months before it even comes up for hearing, the worst
after Madhya Pradesh, where it takes around 60 years 10 months. A study
conducted by study by RTI Assessment and Advocacy Group (RaaG) and Samya-Centre
for Equity Studies in collaboration with NCPRI (National Campaign for People's
Right to Information) shows that Bengal has a disposal rate of 40 cases per
month, only higher than Madhya Pradesh that disposes 21 cases per month.
For RTI
activist Amitabha Majumdar, the state information commission has become a
"defunct" organization. "The departments tell me openly that
they won't reply, and when I go to the information commission, they don't act.
It is not possible for us to move court on every issue. Naturally, this is very
frustrating for us. We have to abandon all hope."
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