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(Guest)

Real Issues - RTI Act is in danger

First CIC  of India ensured that nails are in place to place the coffin of RTI Act 2005 within 5 years of its inception. Ma sonia khus huye. and he will be gainfully employed by the ruling congress in J&K soon.

The CIC therafter are the chosen bureaucrats who are either caught red handed for enormous loot or scoot or ornarily born with a weak heart. They are all following the footsteps of their erstwhile First CIC. RTI act is slowly being being lowered down to its ultimate destination the grave.

PIOs has emboldened by the sheer number of pending cases with SIC and IC/CICs. They just do not care to reply either. Or they mis inform or take umbrage of Sec 8 of the RTI Act.  In  one case I am informed by PIO canteen stores department( a solely owned enterprise of Govt of India under ministry of defence ( the new CVC was its chief secretary ) that under the provision of Sec 8(1)(j) of RTI Act the info on registration numbers of the URCs ( unit run canteens exclusive retail outlets of Canteen Stores Deptt( But consideree private by the ministry of defence) can not be intimated as it will compromise sovereignity of the ciountry blah blahg blah.

When first appelate ayth , AGM of CSD Adelphi , mumbai was contacted it wrote that URCs are not under the purview of RTI Act 2005 as had been ruled by JUGDE ADVOCATES BRANCH OF Army. Kar Lo Baat???@@@

I have many such communications where PIOs have invoked the hand of GOd, the exeptions Iin RTI Act in the most outlandish manner and have no fear to be punished. Meanwhile RTI applications have  become a costly affair as post master general; have suddenly withdrawn the  under postal cert service recently.

Mr Kejriwals are busy with LOKPAL which will be of no help to common man. It may benefit main opposition party at the best. I hope Mr Kejriwal see through the game plan of the govt at the centre as well as the main opposition party and get out of the rut called jokpal.

i WISH aRVIND kEJRIWAL IS BACK WITH MORE ENTHUSIAM AND GET THE rti BACK TO ITS GLORY.



Learning

 5 Replies

Anil Agrawal (Retired)     25 September 2011

File a second appeal with CIC. CSD is definiely under RTI any any lower formation of CSD too is under RTI.

Democratic Indian (n/a)     25 September 2011

Solution lies when people from all walks of life, apply for the posts of Information Commissioners and there is transparency in their selection and appointments. In order to understand please read the following:


1) https://www.indiatogether.org/2010/may/rti-apply.htm


2) https://advocatesivasubramanian.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/Re-Apply-to-be-an-Information-Commissioner-21869.asp

Anil Agrawal (Retired)     26 September 2011

Scams. Skeletons are tumbling out daily.

Wait till RTI is scrapped.


(Guest)

A debate whether LOKPAL or RTI Act 2005 has the potential to bring probity in public as well as private life is now is inevitable. The people in this forum are not only well versed but enthusiatics as well. I am sure people will create new thread and debate it vigrously. Meanwhile i am going through the link provided by Democratic Indian and surely  be able to educate myself further. 

My experience on RTI Act 2005 is mexed. There are however some successes as well. We need to find like minded people to explore more and more to create a fear of 36 crores Godesses in Gucci & Gods without Mustaches in the minds of so called god fearing people abusing the power of the office.

Anil Agrawal (Retired)     26 September 2011

RTI is dead. Read this.

 

RTI in state dying on second appeals
Published: Monday, Sep 26, 2011, 8:00 IST 
By Ashutosh Shukla | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA
 

The purpose of the Right to Information Act, it seems, will be defeated in Maharashtra if the state information commission does not get its act together quickly.

The number of second appeals pending with the commission has been growing with each passing day. It is likely to touch 18,000 by the month-end and some even date back to 2006.

The fact came to fore when a group of RTI activists took up the matter (RTI delays) with the state information chief and asked him how he planned to sort this out. The RTI Act says the commission should provide a person with the required information within 30 days of filing an application. But the huge backlog of second appeals has ensured that the minimum waiting period for a query is three months.

If you want to know something under the RTI Act, you will have to file an application. If there is no response within 30 days or if you are unsatisfied with the answer, you can approach the first appellate authority (FAA). If there is no/unsatisfactory response within 45 days, you can directly approach the information chief. The process, known as second appeal in RTI parlance, has no time limit though.

And this is the bottleneck adding to the delay, the group found. Though Vijay Kuvalekar, acting chief information commissioner since July 2011, is aware of it, he can do little. “There are at least 3,000 appeals — letters and complaints — untouched,” he said.

“We came to know of this when we tried to prepare a chronological list of pending appeals following the demand for quicker disposals by RTI activists. Unfortunately, we cannot avoid the delay because we are short-staffed and there are only five commissioners, including myself, for the entire state.”

The RTI Act allows a state to have 10 commissioners and a chief, but the Maharashtra government has sanctioned only seven and a chief. Of the seven, one has been suspended and two have retired more than a month ago.

At least 15,785 appeals were pending in June 2011. That is a jump of almost 22% in six months as 12,933 appeals were pending in December 2010, Bhaskar Prabhu, member of Mahiti Adhikar Manch (the group that took up the matter of pending appeals), said.

The group has offered to help the information commission. “We will give the names of our volunteers who will go through the pending appeals and prepare a chronological list for faster disposal,” Prabhu said. “We feel chief minister Prithviraj Chavan is responsible for this mess. Neither did he appoint a new state information chief, nor did he replace those who have retired. There, obviously, is a problem of staff-shortage, which is worsening the situation.”

The retired information chiefs, however, tried to play down the whole issue. “I do not know how the number of pending appeals has gone up so high. Those were never placed before me,” Vilas Patil said. “I was the information chief only for six months and I tried my best to clear the backlog.”

Suresh Joshi, who was the state information commissioner for five years, said the number of pending appeals could not be that high. “Our attempt has always been to dispose of the oldest first. Maybe one or two or at best a couple of appeals can date back to 2006,” he said. “Also, there is the problem of too many appeals coming from a person. Sometimes, people file almost 50 applications. Maybe some of those applications are still pending.”

 

 

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