Daily Pioneer: Dehradun: Thursday, August 23, 2018.
Enthused by
the success of Pithoragarh experiment, the State Information Commission (SIC)
would soon start video conferencing sessions for Almora district also. The
video conferencing sessions help to expedite the disposals of Right to
Information (RTI) appeals pending in the commission. The deputy secretary SIC,
Shalini Negi said that the commission has held discussions with the National
Informatics Centre (NIC) for starting video conferencing sessions for Almora
district. She said that the process not only saves time but also help in
bringing down the expenditure incurred in travelling all the way to Dehradun to
attend hearing in the commission. The commission started the experiment of
holding video conferencing sessions for hearing the appeals in the RTI cases in
Pithoragarh district last year and the results were encouraging.
It is worth
mentioning here that more than 1100 appeals in the RTI queries are at present
pending in the commission. The pendency in the commission increased after the
process of appointment of new Information Commissioners (IC) got delayed.
After a gap
of almost three months the hearings in the commission have recently commenced
when the state government appointed J P Mamgain and C S Napalchyal as ICs.
The SIC was
created out of the constitutional obligation under the Right to Information
(RTI) act of 2005 to dispose of the cases of appeals involving non fulfilment
of provisions under the RTI Act.