State info commission takes 13 months to dispose of RTI plea

Times of India: Bengaluru: Thursday, October 25, 2018.

With 32,992 appeals before it and each of them requiring an average of 13 months for disposal, the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) stands third in the country when it comes to pendency of cases. It ranks eighth in the time taken to resolve each.

A review of the performance of state information commissions from January 1, 2016 to October 31, 2017 revealed that Uttar Pradesh accounted for the maximum number of pending appeals/complaints (41,561), followed by Maharashtra (41,178). The audit was done by Satark Nagrik Sangathan and Centre for Equity Studies based on directions from the Central Information Commission.

NP Ramesh, state information commissioner, said pendency in Karnataka has reduced and they are making efforts to take up as many cases as possible every day. But activists beg to differ. RTI Study Centre trustee BH Veeresh said the situation is worse than what appears in the review findings as the commission hasn’t shared the complete information with reviewers. “A lot of cases have been pending since 2011 and many have been disposed of without providing any information to the complainant. According to the review data, Karnataka has not provided full information in 29% of the cases,” he claimed.

The last time KIC published its report was in 2014-15. Veeresh said a few years ago, Karnataka was prompt in publishing its annual reports but was now shying away from sharing information for best reasons known to it. However, the commission has claimed to have submitted reports till 2016-17 to the government, which will have to publish them on the website.

Sources in the commission said they are facing a huge manpower shortage and most employees are either working on a contract basis or are on deputation. The eight information commissioners themselves are working on deputation, they pointed out. KIC has written to the government to implement the cadre and recruitment rules so that the agency itself can hire staff.

RTI activists blacklisted?

Veeresh alleged that KIC is portraying RTI activists as extortionists and illegally blacklisting some of them. In a memorandum submitted to the commission, the RTI Study Centre said 12 RTI activists were blacklisted by the commission for seeking information.

State no. 1 in imposing fines on officials

Karnataka ranks first in imposing penalty on officials for failing to share information; fines worth Rs 1.69 crore have been imposed in 2,044 cases. However, KIC has no clue if the amount has been collected or not. Ramesh said it’s the responsibility of the authorities to send a compliance report to the commission and the secretary on collecting the fines but government officials are reluctant to do so.