-: [rti4empowerment] Fwd: A Survey of all the Information Commissions across the Nation

Dear Friends,

Please find below a survey of all the Information Commissions across the nation.

A survey of all the State Information Commissions across the Nation (on a limited parameter).
A	B	C	D	E
Sr.	State Information Commission	No. of Commissioner	Min To Max time for a 1^st Hearing	Source of Information
1.	Sikkim	One	3 to 7 days	Secretary - 03592 - 205465
2.	Meghalaya	One	15 to 21 Days	Secretary - 0364 - 2500179
3.	Mizoram	One	1 week to 1 month	Under Secretary & PIO - 0389 - 233 5542
4.	Arunachal Pradesh	One	15 Days to 1 ½ months	Deputy Registrar - 09436044524
5.	Uttarakhand	Five	1 month	Dty Secretary - 0135 - 2675780
6.	Haryana	Eight	1 to 1 ½ months	Secretary – 94637 41410 0172 - 278 3670
7.	Nagaland	Three	1 to 1 ½ months	0370 - 2291041
8.	Punjab	Ten	1 to 1/2 months	Deputy Registrar 0172 – 4630058
9.	Tripura	One	15 Days to 2 months	Secretary - 0381 - 2324146
10.	Himachal Pradesh	Two	1 ½ to 3 months	Asst.Registrar - 0177-262 9894
11.	Chhattisgarh	Three	2 ½ to 3 months	PRO - 0771 4024 235
12.	Jammu & Kashmir	Three	2 to 4 months	Registrar - 0191 - 252 0970
13.	Tamil Nadu	Five	2 to 4 months	Registrar - 044 - 24357584
14.	Karnataka	Five	2 to 4 months	Secretary - 080 – 22371959 / 097400 54485
15.	Andhra Pradesh	Nine	3 to 4 months	Secretary - 09866773624 Joseph Daniel (Activist)
16.	Assam	One	3 to 6 months	Secretary - 0361 – 222 0193
17.	Jharkhand	Two	4 to 6 months	Secretary & FAA 0651 - 2401670
18.	Bihar	Two	6 months to 1 yr	Registrar - 0612 - 2235059
19.	Uttar Pradesh	Three	8 to 9 months	Reception UPSIC - 0522-2288949 Urvashi Sharma (Activist)
20.	Orissa	Two	7 months to 1 yr	Pradip Pradhan (Activist)
21.	Kerala	Five	6 months to 1 yr	Secretary - 0471 - 2561 605
22.	Maharashtra	Four	15 Days to 2 yrs	Various
23.	Gujarat	Three	1 ½ yr to 2 yrs	Ms. Pankti Jog (Activist) - 09909006791 Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel
24.	Rajasthan	One	1 ½ yr to 2 Yrs	Secretary's Office - 0141 - 270 8821 Manoj Kamra (Activist)
25.	West Bengal	Three	5 years	Secretary – 033 - 24791966 Ranjoy Sinha (Activist) Presently cases pertaining to 2008 are being heard Is Mamata Didi listening !
26.	Goa	One	Non-Functional	Aires Rodrigues (Activist) - 098226 84372
27.	Madhya Pradesh	Zero	Non-Functional for last 1 ½ year	Rolly Shivhare (Activist) 09425- 466461 (more than 25,000 Appeals Pending !!!!!)
28.	Manipur	Zero	Non-Functional	Manipur Information Commission Phone Ringing No Answer - 0385 – 245 6302 Link: http://tinyurl.com/Manipur-Info-Com-NonFunctional

Please Note:

1. The above data is largely based on a telephonic survey, by speaking to the people from respective State Information Commission on the designation & telephone numbers mentioned in column E, as well as, by corresponding / speaking to a few Activists from the respective State, and I am very thankful to all of them for their kind co-operation in providing the required information.

The data has been sorted on the basis of column D i.e. Minimum to Maximum time for a first hearing,
And it has been gathered on the basis of two queries:

How many Information Commissioners are functional in the respective State Information Commission as on today?

What is the time i.e. number of days, weeks, months or years it takes for a first hearing to come up before the respective State Information Commission?

2. Please note that in some Information Commissions, although the first hearing may take place comparatively quite early but then it takes multiple hearings before a case is finally disposed of.

For example in Punjab SIC the first hearing may take place in 1 to 1 ½ months, but then it may take several hearings and up-to one year for the case to be finally disposed of.

3. Some interesting facts & practices:

Chief Minister's Role & Responsibility:

It is a lesser known fact that as per section 15(3) of the RTI Act, a Chief Minister of a State is directly responsible for implementation of RTI Act in his / her respective State,

And as such, the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Goa, Madhya Pradesh & Manipur (please refer to highlights in colour red above) are guilty of having largely FAILED in their primary responsibility of sharing information with the citizens of their State in real time.

It is also surprising to note that on the one hand Ms. Mamta Banerjee - TMC is the only Political Party which has welcomed the CIC decision whereby Political Parties have been brought under the ambit of RTI Act, but on the other hand her State has grossly failed in the implementation of RTI Act, I mean cases pertaining to the year 2008 are being heard today, and ironically it is a fact that the CM Ms. Mamta Banerjee is directly responsible for such a failure.

In Nagaland:

There are a total of three Information Commissioners, and they always sit together in a bench for every decision taken by the Nagaland Information Commission!

In Haryana:

An interesting practice has been introduced, which if followed at other State Information Commissions, it may help reduce their pendency:

Upon receipt of a Second Appeal, the Haryana Information Commission sends a notice titled "DATE BOUND COMMISSION'S NOTICE UNDER RTI ACT, 2005" to both the parties (Respondent as well as the Appellant) in which three pre-determined DATES are listed ab-initio.

On or before the First listed Date - The Respondent (PIO) is supposed to submit his say on the second appeal filed before the Commission.

This say is to be submitted to the Commission with a copy to the Appellant.

On or before the Second listed Date: The Appellant shall send a rejoinder on the aforesaid say of the Respondent (PIO).

The Appellant is to send this rejoinder to the Respondent (PIO) with a copy to the Commission.

On the Third listed Date: Finally, the pre-scheduled hearing is then held at the Commission where both the Respondent (PIO) & Appellant are heard.

Thus, Haryana Information Commission affords one more round of rejoinder between PIO & RTI Appellant, before both of them are finally heard before the Commission. This additional round of rejoinder (with Information Commission being kept in the loop), may possibly help reduce some pendencies at Information Commissions, where there are huge pendencies and delays.