The Hindu: New Delhi: Saturday, April 28, 2018.
Reena, a
single mother, has been unable to acquire Scheduled Caste certificates for her
children as her RTI (Right to Information) application filed in 2016, still
remains unanswered.
“I had
applied for Scheduled Caste certificates for my children but was told by the
Revenue Department that the caste certificate of the father needs to be
provided. In 2016, I filed the RTI application seeking information on the
documents to be provided by a single mother.
“Despite
orders of the appellate authority, till date, neither has the PIO (Public
Information Officer) complied with the order nor has my matter been taken up
for disposal,” said Ms. Reena, a resident of a slum in the Dakshinpuri area in
the capital.
She was
speaking at a public hearing on the functioning of Information Commissions (IC)
across the country that saw the participation of people from 14 States.
A study
conducted by Delhi-based research and advocacy organisation Centre for Equity
Studies and citizens’ group Satark Nagrik Sangathan had highlighted several
issues, including lack of transparency and skewed composition of the ICs,
inadequate imposition of penalties, and the issue of delayed responses.
‘Dissuade
people’
“The State
Information Commission (SIC) is functioning with only one commissioner, even
though nearly 14,000 appeals and complaints are pending with it. Because of the
massive backlog, it is impossible to get a date before at least a year. This
can be seen as a tactic of the government to dissuade people from filing RTIs
as applicants are bound to lose patience due to the delayed response,” said
Abey George from Kerala.
Not
functioning
Chakradhar,
an RTI activist from Andhra Pradesh, said that A.P. has not had a functional
SIC for the last 11 months.
The report,
which evaluates the functioning of ICs between January 2016 and October 2017,
states that, as on November 1, 2017, the estimated time for the disposal of an
appeal or complaint is the highest in West Bengal, at 43 years.
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