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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | RTI cases piling up, Commission seeks state govt’s help by Mohd Arshi Rafique

RTI cases piling up, Commission seeks state govt’s help by Mohd Arshi Rafique

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published Published on Jun 11, 2010   modified Modified on Jun 11, 2010

Alarmed with the rising number of pending RTI complaints, the State Information Commission is learnt to have apprised the state government of the increasing work pressure on Information Commissioners.

The commission — where as many as 32,811 cases were pending at the end of March — has also suggested ways to lessen the burden of complaints. The government, in response, has shot a missive to various departments asking them to cooperate.

The letter issued by Secretary Anita Singh directs departments to do away with the practice of deputing juniors officers at case hearings and asks Public Information Officers and First Appeal Officer to be present there. This will reduce the pendency of cases as “in the absence of PIOS, we are left with no other options but to further postpone the hearing,” said Information Commissioner Gyanendra Sharma.

The Commission is also learnt to have asked the government to take steps to sort out the complaints on first appeal. “This can be ensured by the effecting implementation of first appeal provision as per Section 19 (1) of the RTI Act,” said Sharma. The section allows an applicant to appeal to the first appeal officer at the department after the expiry of 30 days of filing the plea. But the trend here is to skip the first appeal and directly petition the commissioner under Section 18.

“We prefer to appeal to the commissioner as first appeal officers have been nearly defunct in the state,” said Sachin Agrawal, an RTI Activist. “Since the Act does not talk of any fine or action against the first appeal officer, officers prefer to ignore the appeals.”

Engineer fined

The State Information Commission has imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on Subodh Rai, LDA executive engineer, zone-5. Rai was held guilty of not releasing information related to his role in granting permission to the owners of a complex in Ashiyana to construct shops in the basement area allotted for parking.

Hearing the petition of one Beena Bhatt, Information Commissioner Brijesh Kumar Mishra also issued a notice to the secretary, LDA and the Ansals Housing and Construction Company for not complying with the commission’s orders of producing documents related to the construction of the building.

The next hearing is on July 22.


The Indian Express, 11 June, 2010, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/RTI-cases-piling-up--Commission-seeks-state-govt-s-help/632422/


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