--- On Thu, 3/12/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [HumJanenge] Digest Number 2653 To: [email protected] Date: Thursday, March 12, 2009, 8:52 PM Hum Janenge: People's resolve to Know Messages In This Digest (1 Message) 1. Demonstration against TN Information Commission's functioning - 16th From: Madhav View All Topics | Create New Topic Message 1. Demonstration against TN Information Commission's functioning - 16th Posted by: "Madhav" [email protected] vishnu_madhav Thu Mar 12, 2009 12:28 am Hi All, Please join the demonstration. Also spread the word. *Date:* 16th March 2009, from 10 AM - 1 PM *Venue: *Memorial Hall (Opposite to Government General Hospital. Near Chennai Central Railway Station) *Purpose:* Demonstration against the poor functioning of the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission. *Background* The enactment of the Right to Information act, 2005 was expected to be a turning point in India's history as it was believed that this act would, for the first time, put both the common citizen and the Government servant in their right places. Of that of a master and a servant. And it did have wonderful effects. Citizens everywehere started demanding Information regarding the Government's functioning, and in the process ensuring their rights which they could not for all this time with other means. But this mail is not about the feel-good stories. It is about the biggest problem that the Right to Information act faces today in Tamil Nadu. And ironically, the problem is the Tamil Nadu Information Commission. Ironical because, it is the Information Commission that was supposed to be the backbone of the act. Knowing fully well that Government servants would not easily part with Information about their functioing, the Act provided for setting up of a Central Information Commission and State Information commissions in each state whose powers are similar to that of a court. If an officer refuses to part with information, the Information Commission has to impose penalties on those officers. And it is this fear of punishment that forces the officer to disclose information. But what is being observed today in the functioning of the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission is that, the Commission, far from the role enivsaged role of the being the saviour of the act, the functioning of the TN Information Commission is today the single biggest roadblock for an effective implementation of the Right to Information act in the state. *Problems* To see why the functioning of the Information Commission is a huge problem, the reasoning is straightforward. The three most important problems in the functioning of the State Information Commission are 1. Huge delays in disposal of cases. (close to 10 months) 2. Lenient attitude towards officers violating the act 3. And lack of follow-up of orders. *Consequences* The consequences of these problems are: Due to problem 1 your cases take a very long time to be heard. This puts off most applicants from filing an appeal and emboldens the Government officers. And if you have the motivation to file an appeal with the commission and also have the patience to wait till the commission's order comes, you will be facing problem 2. The commission acts very leniently and only orders the officer to give you the information. No Show cause notice, no penalty, nothing. In the rare cases that the commission imposes a penalty, you face problem 3. No follow-up. Be it an order to supply information or a show cause notice for penalty or imposition of penalty itself, the commission just does not bother to follow-up. And so the most logical thing for the applicant to do next is to remind the commission that it has to do a follow-up. And no prizes for guessing, this takes the applicant back to the beginning where your reminder also takes a long time to be considered. *What we intend to do* As organisations interested in the effecive implementation of the Right to Information act, have made efforts at dialogues with the State Information Commission and have failed. Failed to the extent that the Chief Information Commissioner even avoided giving us a date for a meeting with him. Hence we have decided to organise a demonstration against the commission's functioning at the Memorial hall in front of the Government General Hospital near the Central Railway station on 16th March 2009 from 10 AM - 1 PM and pressing the following demands. *1. Immediate reduction in delays in disposal of appeals. All appeals to the State Information Commission should be disposed within two months of the appeal reaching the Commission. 2. Adherence to the penal provisions of the Right to Information Act, by imposing penalty in ALL cases where information has been delayed without reasonable cause, where information has been malafidely denied and where incorrect, incomplete and misleading information was given knowingly and where information has been destroyed. 3. Set up a proper and efficient mechanism for follow up of orders issued by the Commission. These orders could be directions to disclose information, or issuing Show Cause Notices or imposing penalties. 4. Evolve a set of guidelines or procedure on how appeals coming to the Commission will be handled and preparing guidelines for consistent decision making by all the Information Commissioners. Such guidelines/procedur e should be made public. 5. Conduct monthly feedback discussions every month where members of the public can interact with all the Commissioners to highlight problems in the functioning of the commission and to discuss ideas to solve problems that come up. 6. Provide monthly reports on the functioning of the Information Commission at the feedback meeting, especially giving the following statistics. a.Number of appeals/complaints received b.Number of appeals/complaints disposed c.Number of penalties imposed d.Copies of SIC decisions and Cause lists available easily to the public through the internet and by keeping hard copies at the Commission 7. Adhere to the reporting requirements of section 25(1) of the Right to Information Act.* We request you to join us in this effort to help save RTI. To help the common man. And also so that the efforts of so many people in bringing about such a legilsation in the first place should not go in vain. Please help in spreading the word too. Let the citizens know how ineffectively the State Information Commission is functioning. *Organisations and their representatives who are part of the protest* S.M.Arasu (Anti Corruption Movement) Louis Menezes (Transparency International, India - TN Chapter) L.S.Jeganathan (Tamil Nadu Lanjam Kodathor Iyakkam) M.Sowmya (Citizen, consumer and civic Action Group) Vijayanand (5th Pillar) Siva Elango (Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam) V.Gopalakrishnan (RTI Activist, MGR Nagar) Rupesh Kumar (Corporate Accountability Desk) V.Madhav (Association for India’s Development) *For more details please contact:* madhav.vishnubhatta @gmail.com 9840327303. Madhav. Back to top Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity 1 New MembersVisit Your Group Yahoo! Mail Stay in Touch Stay connected and manage your life Yahoo! Toolbar Get it Free! easy 1-click access to your groups. Yahoo! Groups Start a group in 3 easy steps. Connect with others. Need to Reply? 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