The Tribune: Ludhiana: Monday, October 01, 2018.
Indifferent attitude of the Ludhiana
Improvement Trust (LIT) towards implementation and monitoring of the Right to
Information Act 2005 has come to the fore with the admission of the RTI branch
of the Trust that annual performance report which is a statutory requirement
under Section 25 of the Act, has not been submitted for the past four years –
2014 to 2017.
In a reply to an application lodged with
the LIT under the RTI Act, Rohit Sabharwal, President, Council of RTI
Activists, had sought information about submission of the annual report under
Section 25 of the Act (which relates to implementation and monitoring relevant
provisions of the Act), the Public Information Officer intimated (vide his
letter no. LIT/RTI/11394 dated September 25, 2018) that the desired information
was not available in the record of the RTI branch.
The LIT, however, stated that during the
period (2014 to 2017), Parveen Kumar, Harmeet Singh, Rajiv Sabharwal and Satnam
Kuar were deployed in the RTI branch who were duty-bound to submit the annual
report to the State Information Commission as laid down in Section 25.
According to Sabharwal, provisions of
Section 25 lays down that the Central Information Commission (CIC) or the State
Information Commission (SIC) would submit its annual report (about
implementation of the Act) to the government on the basis of information
compiled from such statements being provided by all departments covered under
the Act.
The provisions (of Section 25 and its
sub-sections) further state that the public authority of each department
covered by the Act would intimate the number of applications received during
the year, data of such cases where applicants were not entitled to have access
to desired documents, number of appeals referred to the CIC or the SIC and
outcome of such appeals and disciplinary action taken against the officials concerned
regarding implantation of the Act.
The relevant provisions also provide that
such annual reports of the CIC or the SIC need to be laid before Parliament or
state Assemblies with recommendations of the Central or state commission to the
public authority concerned listing steps to ensure implementation of the Act in
letter and in spirit.
Sabharwal said he would take up the
matter with the State Information Commission to take disciplinary action
against the employees/officials concerned for failure to submit annual reports
for the past four years and proper implementation of the RTI Act.