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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | RTI hurdles aplenty by Manju V

RTI hurdles aplenty by Manju V

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published Published on Dec 29, 2011   modified Modified on Dec 29, 2011

From 1,865 in 2006, the backlog of applications at the Central Information Commission has swelled to above 22,700. Activists say the RTI Act will lose its bite in a few years if the present state of affairs continues.

In September 2006, an RTI applicant sought a simple list of schemes approved under the Urban Land Ceiling Act. The government department concerned demanded Rs 16 lakh from him. He appealed against the hefty charge to the then state information commissioner Suresh Joshi. He is yet to receive a response to his query. Information commissioner Sushma Singh was to question the appellate authority of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on December 15 for not replying to an RTI query filed in April. The query was about the government's character verification of candidates for top DGCA posts. Even before the hearing, Singh adjourned it to February after DGCA officials told her they were busy with Republic Day celebrations.

The proponents of Lokpal and Lokayukta could learn a lesson or two from the RTI Act and brace themselves for a long-drawn battle. Each year, bureaucrats devise new ways to deny or delay information to RTI applicants, who need to cross an ever-increasing number of hurdles to get it.


Hurdles can be as small as the public information officer (PIO) not listing the name of the appellate authority in an RTI reply. "It is binding on the PIO to state the name of the appellate authority in a reply so that the applicant knows who to appeal if he or she is not satisfied with the PIO's reply . But many government bodies like the municipal corporation and the slum rehabilitation authority, and development agencies hardly follow this norm," said RTI activist Simpreet Singh.

Common ways of dodging RTI queries are giving incomplete replies, sending delayed responses with a back date (made evident by the post office's stamp, which reveals the actual date of reply) and not forwarding a query to the department concerned. "It is common to find an appellate authority asking the applicant why a PIO should give him the sought information . But the RTI Act states that it is the PIO who should be asked to explain why information is being withheld," Singh said.

Even information that is generally put in the public domain , like the fixed assets of directors of government organizations , is routinely denied . And when an order is passed in violation of the act, enough care is taken by the officials concerned to cover their tracks. "When Ramanand Tiwari was information commissioner , he gave the Juhu police another chance to reply to my query. This was against the RTI Act's provisions and so Tiwari did not put it down in writing. Till date, it is not on record," said RTI activist Yogacharya Anandji referring to an application he filed in 2006.

In the DGCA case (mentioned above), "the officials didn't even turn up for the hearing" , saidSupreme Court advocate Prashant Shukla, who was representing the applicant . Shukla said the adjournment order was oral. Information commissioner Sushma Singh was not available for comment.

Predictably, the pendency of RTI appeals is rising steadily . The Central Information Commission (CIC), headquartered in Delhi, had a pendency of 22,725 appeals as of November 2011 (see box). The number represents only those cases that went to the CIC directly . It does not include appeals pending before the state information commissions.

The Times of India, 26 December, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/RTI-hurdles-aplenty/articleshow/11249721.cms


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