Before you read ET story below :
My Take :
"My RTI in Commission has revealed that Central Registry do not maintain record of total cases (Appeal and Complaints) received in the Commission. It also returns bulk of cases to the appellants under various clauses of RTI Rules, but maintain no such record. Since April 2015, my repeated submission to the Senior Officers of the Commission, including a meeting with the Chief Information Commissioner, to ensure transparency by displaying on website complete data of cases received, returned and registered .....has not fructified so far. This gives an impression that Commission is trying to hide factual data of cases.
In my perception, sharp decline in registration of cases since mid-June, appears to be a deliberate attempt to give false impression to the citizens about reduction in pendency. What is intriguing is Commissions refusal to maintain data of cases transparently. This completely defeats the purpose of RTI. CIC is the final appellate authority, which an applicant turns to for accessing his right to information. If he is turned away by the watchdog where would he go?"
--Go ahead and read ET story below:
Regards,
Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd.) IN-1967
BringChangeNow
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ET
Central Information Commission appeals plunge 96% in four months
By NIDHI SHARMA, ET Bureau | 9 Oct, 2015, 04.00AM IST
NEW DELHI: The number of appeals and complaints with the Central Information Commission (CIC), the final appellate authority for the Right to Information Act, plummeted 96 per cent to 119 in September from 3,356 in May. This has raised concerns over the functioning of CIC, the last resort for the common man to exercise his right under the transparency law.
An analysis of CIC data done by ET reveals that the number of cases dropped to 448 in August from 2,637 in June. Considering that in 2014, the number of cases registered in a month had averaged 2,662, against 1,345 cases in the previous year, the latest figures look completely out of sync.
An analysis of CIC data done by ET reveals that the number of cases dropped to 448 in August from 2,637 in June. Considering that in 2014, the number of cases registered in a month had averaged 2,662, against 1,345 cases in the previous year, the latest figures look completely out of sync.
The sudden drop in the number of cases over the past four months has coincided with a speedy decline in the cases pending with CIC to 35,000 from a peak of about 40,000 in May. Experts said this has put CIC's role into sharp focus especially because its central registry has not maintained any record of the number of appeals and complaints returned and the reasons for returning such applications.
CIC registrar MK Sharma, on his part, said, "We are going by the rules." Pressed for the number of cases returned, he quoted a figure of 3,000 but without specifying the exact time period.
India's first chief information commissioner Wajahat Habibullah termed this "irresponsible". "If appellants are being turned away on any ground it is an attempt by the commission to escape its responsibility," he said.
"My reading of the rules has always been that you have to accept the application. If there are some deficiencies you don't refuse to register the case. You take a liberal view and ask the applicant to furnish additional documents," Habibullah said.
He said he was shocked to know that the registration had dipped to 119 in a month, asking twice if the data was for the entire commission or just one information commissioner.
RTI activist Lokesh Batra, who has been fighting for transparency in CIC registry, said the commission's refusal to maintain data of cases transparently completely defeats the purpose of the law. "The sharp decline in registration of cases since mid-June appears to be a deliberate attempt to give a false impression to the citizens about reduction in pendency...CIC is the final appellate authority, which an applicant turns to for accessing his right to information. CIC is the final appellate authority, which an applicant turns to for accessing his right to information. If he is turned away by the watchdog where would he go?"
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Posted by: Lokesh Batra <batra_lokesh@yahoo.com>
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