GOA Poor facilities irk state information panel
NT Staff Reporter Panaji, Jan 21 Although the government vows by the Right to Information Act, it is neglecting the guardian of the Act, the Goa State Information Commission. By guarding the citizens' use of the RTI, the commission is proving to be a thorn in the side of many government departments. But it neither has proper premises for its functioning, nor adequate staff to meet the workload. Speaking to 'The Navhind Times' today, the chief information commissioner, Mr A Venkataratnam said the commission has many grievances but the main problem is lack of staff. For instance, while the commission makes it mandatory for all other departments to appoint public information officers and assistant public information officers, the commission is not in a position to appoint its own PIO or APIO. It simply does not have the staff. In the absence of the PIO or the APIO, the commission cannot furnish information about its own functioning. Also, there is no registrar for court matters and no personal staff. If there is a commissioner, he should have a personal assistant or a personal secretary. These posts are not created. They should have been created when the commission was formed, Mr Venkataratnam said. The commission has requested the government to provide one personal secretary, one peon and one driver but there is no response from the government. "In the Central Information Commission, the personal secretary is appointed in the scale of Rs 12,000," said the information commissioner, Mr G G Kambli. The premises is another problem. The commission does not have a courtroom, no place for the appellants and advocates to sit and no place to keep the records. Every morning, the advocates, appellants and the respondents - who are often heads of government departments - queue up in the narrow corridor outside the commission office. Moved by the plight of the advocates and appellants, who were hanging outside "like crows on an electricity wire", the commissioner arranged to put plastic chairs outside. Sadly, somewhere in the area is located a garbage dumping site. So the people who throng the commission are subjected to stench and mosquitoes, Mr Venkataratnam said. The commission has not toilets. The commissioner and the staff, including the lady staff, have to go two floors up in the building if they need to use the toilet. But the government's careless attitude towards the commission is nothing new. When it was started in March 2006, it did not even have an office. It started from the commissioner's residence in Porvorim. The present office was only given in June 2006. Said Mr Venkataratnam: "All these inconveniences are there. But our functioning by way of disposal of cases has not been affected. We do not keep the cases pending over three months." The commission has forwarded its grievances to the government several times but the government is not acting on these. When asked why the government is ignoring the commission, Mr Venkataratnam said, "We can give you all the facts, the inferences are for you to draw. The government sources refuted the commission's stand saying the commission is an autonomous body with an independent budget. Sources said the funds are given by the government and "the commission has to go on its own". Despite the government denial, the commission reiterated its position. Scoffing at the claim of autonomy, the commission sources said the government has not declared the commission secretary as its head of department. The commission has to go to the finance department for concurrence and administrative approval even for small things, sources said. Tuesday, January 22, 2008 OTHER STORIES IN THIS SECTION (c) Copyright Navhind Papers & Publications Ltd.
