Hyderabad, October 13: Instead of working for the successful implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act in the State, the State Information Commission (SIC) has been working against it by delaying the disbursal of information to applicants, the United Forum for RTI Campaign said.
Speaking to mediapersons at a silent protest conducted by United Forum in the premises of the APSIC on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of enactment of RTI Act, the State convener of the forum N Nagendra Babu, accused the SIC for delaying information to applicants, which subsequently led people to avoid contact with government offices.
The Forum said that this potent weapon in the hands of citizens is not being allowed to be used extensively by various organisations in the State.
They feel that one of the key hindrances to the Act and its spirit is the Information Commission which is being lax in supervising the implementation of this Act.
Pointing out that SIC has so far fined only 10 officers (in four years) which is abysmally low, the forum said that this was leading to laxity by authorities in providing the information as they do not feel the pinch of non-compliance.
The pending period of appeals in the Commission has gone up from three months in the first year to eight months now. If the trend continues, the purpose of the Act and Commission will be defeated, the Forum lamented.
After the protest, the United Forum, which includes more than 50 organisations, submitted a charter of demands to the commission. The charter includes relocation of the departments among the commissioners on a logical and rational basis so as to ensure even allocation of the workload and quicker disposal of appeals and complaints.
They also demanded setting up of regional offices of the Information Commission, imposing of penalty on errant PIOs and take stringent action against them, stop rejecting appeals on frivolous technical grounds, push the government to spend more on the publicity besides accepting complaints under section 18 (1).
Prof C Ramchandraiah, Debra from Forum for Better Hyderabad, Nazir from COVA, Rajendra Prasad from MV Foundation and other organizations participated in the protest.
The Forum submitted the Charter of Demands to APSIC commissioners Ambati Subba Rao and K K Sudhakar Rao in the absence of Chief Information Commissioner R Dileep Reddy.
–Agencies