AN EXPERIENCE OF STATE INFORMATION COMMISSION, LUCKNOW by a RTI activist.
I, Bimal Kumar Khemani, Saha Prant Sangathan Mantri of AKHIL BHARATIYA
GRAHAK PANCHAYAT Braj Prant, a national organization of consumers have formed
a group of about 10 dedicated persons to find out corruption with the help of
RTI Act, 2005. We have selected few departments viz. Nagar Nigam, Bharat
Sanchar Nigam, Aligarh Development Authority, D.S.Degree College, Aligarh
Muslim University, Electricity & Health Department. Besides finding out
corruption, we also impart training to various Govt. officials and conduct
public awareness campaign. In course of a period of almost 2 years we did not
get proper information and so have to file about 30/35 appeals before the
STATE INFORMATION COMMISSION, LUCKNOW. On request of one of our friends to
plead his case before the commission on 24-04-08, I had to visit S I C
Lucknow.
The State Information Commission office, Lucknow is located on the 6 th
Floor of Indira Bhawan. The Govt. of U.P. has allotted an office space about
375 Sq. Mts. for a staff of 10 commissioners and 77 sub-ordinate staff. It has
5 chambers for Commissioners and rest of the space is for the staff and keeping
records.
Sri Mulayam Singh Yadaw, ex. Chief minster of the state appointed a
retired H.C.Judge, Mr. M.A.Khan as Chief Information Commissioner and 4 other
commissioners. Km. Mayawati the present chief minister of the state appointed
another 5 commissioners. These appointments give a political smell. So at
present there is a total strength of 10 commissioners. But in this Palatial
building there are only 5 rooms for the commissioners. So commissioners work
in shifts. Five sit from 10.00 to 14.00 hrs. and the other five from 14.00 to
17.00 hrs.
Is it not unfortunate ? Is it not a waste of man power and money ? Does it not
give out 50% results of
the working capacity ? Does it not show how seriously the Govt. of U.P. takes
the State Information Commission ?
There is no Enquiry desk. An enquiry revealed that there are four clerks
to receive DAK, sort it out and send it to the respected commissions . Out of
these four persons one opens the letters and enters the details in receipt
register and puts the receipt numbers on them. I was also told that normally
more than 500 letters are received daily and out of them hardly 400/450 letters
are opened and entered into the register. So rest are left to cool there
heals.
A meeting with the Chief commissioner revealed his easy style of
functioning. He graced us to meet us in his retiring room at about 2.00 p.m..
He was shown a list of 31 pending appeals as filed by our group , with a
request to get them registered and listed for hearing since more than last 4/5
months have passed . He was also informed that the proper notices of hearing
are not received by the appellants and also the copy of the judgments are also
not sent to the parties concerned. I was informed that the commission has
evolved a noble method for supplying the copy of the decision. One is to apply
for a copy as per civil procedure by affixing a court fee stamp of Rs. 10/- and
also required to collect the same from the office of the commission. I do not
know why at this point the Honorable Chief Information Commissioner got
annoyed .and told me to contact Km. MAYAWATI ,and ask her why she is not
allotting more funds to the commission. This was also not the end of the drama
The retd. High Court Judge cum Chief Commissioner also uttered something and
started challenging the role of Khemani as an RTI activist fighting for
transparency in the system.
The experience shows that an appeal filed to-day may get lost in the
office of the commission or be listed after several months due to shortage of
space and funds. It became obvious even in this short visit that the whole
atmosphere is political. Chief commissioner and other commissioners, are
pro-administration. And they are hesitant to impose penalty on the defaulters
u/s.20. If this is going to be the fate of R T I Act then one will like to keep
mum and just watch.
On Tue, 29 Apr 2008 Col NR Kurup wrote :
>These are only window-dressing. These are not the present obstacles in
>implementing the RTI Act. What is needed is following:
>1. Appointment of adequate number of Informtion Commissioners. The
>yard-stick of 10 per commission does not mean anything. It should be on the
>basis of population of each state.
>2. Provisioning adequate number of staff to assist the Information
>Commission
>3. Provision of funds to enable the Commission to arrange hearing at
>outstations in such a way that an applicant should be able to return home on
>the same day after attending the hearing
>4. Implementation of Section 20 of the RTI Act meticulously. The Commission
>should be told that in every case where the PIO is found guilty, should be
>awarded penalty. In case no penalty is awarded the orders should contain a
>reasoned decision for not awarding punishment.
>5. Award of penalty should not be left at the descretion of the Commission.
>It should be mademandatory
>6. Every case of disobedience of orders of he Commission by the public
>Authority should me made to report to government without fail
>7. Restrain the Commission from indulging into extravegency like luxury cars
>and centrally air-conditioned building for office Indiaian public offices
>in general have not reached such a state so far.
>8. RTI Act just does notr need any training. The Act is simple enough to
>understand . Allotment of huge sums for this is a waste of public money. I
>had faced several PIOs. What they are interested is as to how the
>information can be denied. They need only clarifications on Section 8.
>Should he government spend public money to teadch the PIOs how to deny
>information ?
>9. The mind set of PIOs and AAs to be changed from their present style of
> "WHY GIVE THE INFORMATION " to "WHY NOT GIVE THE INFORMATION". A simple
>circular making them understand this concept does not need any training
>10. The present general principle of any Plan now is to find ways and means
>to start new constructions or indulge in to some system of training
>programme where one can manipulate huge amount. All the above Plans appear
>to be in the same direction which should be made to stop forthwith.The
>ouxuryis can wait . First fullfill the priority requirements.
>11. Establish Central nodal agency to coordinate the activities of all the
>Commissions with adequat staff to entertain complaints from cityzen against
>Commissions.
>.
>
>
>On 4/29/08, Dhirendra Krishna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > Rs 300 cr in Plan for strengthening RTI
> > 28 Apr, 2008, 0504 hrs IST,Bharti Jain, TNN
> >
> > NEW DELHI: The Centre, in a bid to strengthen the Right to
> > Information (RTI) division within the personnel department and for
> > granting financial autonomy to state information commissions (SICs),
> > is set to launch a Rs 300-crore scheme under the Eleventh Plan to
> > fund capacity building, training programmes, awareness and
> > educational campaigns relating to RTI.
> >
> > The scheme, which will involve disbursal of Rs 300 crore as grants
> > to RTI and the 27 SICs for effective implementation of RTI Act, has
> > already been given in-principle clearance by the Planning
> > Commission. The amount, which will be released over four years from
> > this fiscal year to 2011-12, will help in adequate computerisation
> > and capacity building at RTI division while reducing dependence of
> > SICs on state governments for physical and financial resources.
> >
> > The largest chunk of the Rs 300-crore scheme Rs 215 crore would
> > be spent on capacity building, involving construction of offices and
> > other physical infrastructure for SICs and computerisation of
> > records. Expenses on training of RTI stakeholders are estimated at
> > Rs 53.36 crore over the four years, on creating awareness at Rs 29.6
> > crore, and on education at Rs 3.35 crore.
> >
> > The state information commissions, which exist in 27 states, have
> > been complaining of limited resources due to lack of enough
> > financial support from state governments. Concerns to this effect
> > were expressed by various SICs in the Second National Convention of
> > the Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions
> > held in October 2007.
> >
> > With the lack of resources coming in the way of the meeting the
> > growing needs of the information seekers, the Centre now plans to
> > release funds to SICs and RTI division for capital asset formation,
> > facilitating IT supported services and capacity building. A grants-
> > in-aid committee would scrutinise the proposals and the grants
> > released in 2 instalments, the first amounting to 50% and the second
> > 50% on submission of the utilisation certificate.
> >
> > According to estimates worked out by the Yashwantrao Academy of
> > Development Administration, Pune, and the National Implementing
> > Agency for Capacity Building for Access to Information, a Government
> > of India-United Nations Development Programme initiative, as many as
> > 25,74,200 stakeholders are to be trained on the provisions of the
> > RTI Act.
> >
> > The proposed Rs 53.36 crore grant, to be released in 2 instalments
> > (first 80% and rest 20% on receipt of utilisation certificate), will
> > help train CPIOs, SPIOs, APIOs, appellate authorities, public
> > authority heads, non-government public authority heads, information
> > commission staff, nodal department staff, exempted organisations,
> > NGOs and citizens. As many as 1500 persons would be trained per
> > district per state and per UT in the first year, 2 districts per
> > state in the second year and 4 districts per state in the next 2
> > years.
> >
> > Awareness generation, which will receive plan funds worth Rs 29.6
> > crore under the scheme, will involve telecast of programmes on state
> > media and dissemination of information on RTI through printed
> > postcards.
> >
> > Realising the need to incorporate lessons on RTI in the educational
> > curriculum itself, the Centre proposes to include chapters/pages on
> > the same in NCERT and SCERT textbooks. Though the authorities feel
> > that such information may only be relevant at the secondary level as
> > children below that age may not be able to grasp its significance,
> > the same could be incorporated on the backcover or opening pages of
> > the elementary textbook as a dissemination method to mothers of such
> > children. In the interest of standardisation of such educational
> > material, the government proposed to have it prepared by NCERT and
> > provide the same to SCERTs for translation into the regional
> > languages and dialects.
> >
> >
> >
> >
BIMAL KUMAR KHEMANI
Saha-Prant Sangathan Mantri,
AKHIL BHARATIYA GRAHAK PANCHAYAT BRAJ PRANT,
2/40D, Janakpuri, Marrish Road,
ALIGARH-202001. INDIA
Phone:0571-2401557, MOB:-093597BIMAL
e.mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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