The State Information Commission office has
received 43,500 petitions since April 2006
Chennai: If knowledge is power, then the Right to Information Act (RTI)
of 2005 has certainly empowered a lot of people.
The landmark Act has helped citizens snip through government red tape
in their quest for information. Take the case of Ramesh D.Jain, a
resident of Park Town, who spent two years trying to find out the
status of his ration card application. He approached Vinod O.Jain, a
member of non-governmental organisation Fifth Pillar, for assistance in
filing a petition under RTI. The petition was made to the Public
Information Officer of the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies and Consumer
Protection Department on February 7 seeking the status on the card.
About a week ago, Mr. Ramesh received his card.
“Seeking information related to civic grievances has speared
organisations into action. Some organisations manage to sort out the
grievance before sending a response to the petition,” says State Chief
Information Commissioner S. Ramakrishnan.
In 2006, the State Information Commission received 8,550 petitions and
in 2007 it received 31,951 petitions. In January and February this
year, about 3,000 petitions have been received.
How it works
Applications are first made to the Public Information Officer in the
department concerned. If a reply is not received in 30 days or if the
information is insufficient, the petitioner can make another
application to the appellate authority, usually the head of the
department. If a reply is not received in 30 days or if more
information is required, the petitioner can send an application to the
State Information Commission. (For list of public information officers,
log on to www.tn.gov.in/rti/pio_appellate.htm)
Government departments have been receiving a steady flow of RTI
petitions. Every month, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board office
in Chennai receives about 25 to 30 petitions and district offices
another 10 to 15 petitions. “We don’t reject any applications and give
replies to all of them,” said Mohan Naidu, Public Information Officer
and Joint Chief Environment Engineer.
The Chennai Metrowater Board gets about 50 petitions a month for
details pertaining to tax and charges and coverage of areas in schemes.
In-house petitions from the organisation about promotions and salary
were also received regularly. Such petitions formed about one-third of
the RTI applications.
Regional Provident Fund Commissioner I. K. Srinivasan said some
petitions sought personal details such as nominations, list of
employees of companies and so on. “But the office does not entertain
such petitions since we consider the privacy of individuals sacred. We
do furnish details of settlements, claims and balances to respective
individuals,” he said.
The School Education department is an organisation that gets a large
number of RTI petitions. A senior official said that the questions are
often long-winded and asked for a large amount of information. He said
officials end up having to answer RTI petitions at the cost of other
work. He suggested that a separate RTI cell be formed in the department
to tackle the queries.
In 2007, the Chennai police received 380 applications under the RTI
Act. Petitioners usually ask if their stolen property has been
recovered or if there was any progress in cases where they had
registered complaints. Commissioner of Police G.Nanchil Kumaran said
that all Deputy Commissioners of Police heading police districts in the
city act as the Information Officers for their jurisdiction, while the
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters) is the Information Officer
at the Commissioner of Police Office, Chennai.
Scope for improvement
Implementation of the RTI Act has a plenty of scope for improvement.
Noted criminal lawyer K.S. Dinakaran said that some departments refused
to disclose information, saying that it was classified. “The RTI Act is
an enactment that is like a paper tiger most of the times. Things like
State secrets or the movement of the Army must be kept secret. But even
everyday administrative things are being classified as confidential,”
he said.
R.L.Saravanan, an advocate who has filed 264 RTI petitions, says crisp
questions get better responses from the government agencies. Among the
government departments, the Revenue Department takes a long time to
reply and people have to wait for months before getting a document, he
said.
Non-governmental organisations seeking information based on large
public issues are in for a long wait, at times. Citizen, Consumer and
Civic Action Group’s project officer Rajesh Rangarajan says there are
procedural delays. There have been instances when he has not received
any response.
“In terms of information we get, it is often vague and one-line
answers,” says Mr. Rangarajan. The Information Commission sometimes
fails to award the penalty even when there has been a three- or
four-month delay. In the long run, the time limit should be reduced to
15 days and the Information Commission should also have a fixed
deadline for the second appeal, he says.
Some NGOs such as Ffth Pillar and Transparency International have
become nodal organisations to help people with RTI application
procedures. They suggest that a letter to the public information
officer ideally should not have lengthy preambles. One can start the
letter saying “Under the RTI Act, kindly supply the following
information” and number the questions. Another important tip to
remember is that court fee stamps are accepted as payment in State
government departments but not in Central government departments.
Although not mandatory, sending an RTI petition by registered post is
useful because the acknowledgement is proof that the application has
been received.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/18/stories/2008031858120300.htm
Copyright
© 2008, The Hindu.
