Bengal lagging in RTI, admits state CIC

[Malay Bhattacharyya]

Bengal lagging in RTI, admits state CIC
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bengal-lagging-in-rti-admits-state-cic/535210/
 
Express News Service Posted online: Friday , Oct 30, 2009 at 0647 hrs
Kolkata : Till date, activists in Bengal had been complaining about the poor implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. But today, Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) also admitted that the state is “quantitatively lagging behind many states”.
“I must admit that throughout the country West Bengal is the only state where there is only one RTI commissioner. Beyond which if I say anything, it would be criticising the government,” said CIC of West Bengal Arun Bhattacharjee on the sidelines of a function in Kolkata.
Though four years have passed since the Act — considered a powerful tool for the common citizens to question the government — came into force, the state government seems to have paid little attention to it.
Bhattacharjee said the state should have put its infrastructure in place and added that in many cases, officials do not want to take up the responsibility with a feeling that if anything happens they will be held responsible. The CIC also pointed out that there is a lack of coordination and initiative between government departments on this issue and the commission does not have the power to tackle it.
In a recent nationwide survey on RTI satisfaction, it was reported that West Bengal is at the bottom of the table with six of the 100 people in the state expressing satisfaction over the RTI. But the CIC defended it by saying: “The report is based on the data collected from the commission website and over the phone. In many cases, the commission has acted but the complainant was not satisfied.”
According to RTI activists, only 15,000 RTI applications have been filed in the state — a number which is lower than the RTI applications filed in a month by states like Maharashtra.
Activists, however, say that the commission has enough powers to enforce its orders on officials and departments, which are not divulging the information.
According to them, low punishment rate in West Bengal is the main reason for such poor implementation and lack of interest among the people to exercise the RTI Act.
“In West Bengal, 13 punishments were ordered in a period of four years. However, in states like Delhi it was about 2,000,” said Moloy Bhattacharjee, secretary, West Bengal RTI Manch — an NGO working for the RTI in Bengal.
“The RTI commissioner should not be a bureaucrat and instead be chosen from people like journalists — something that many states have followed. Usually among bureaucrats a sense of kinship works and they do not impose punishments on fellow bureaucrats,” the activist said.
He alleged that the present commissioner, a former bureaucrat, is not keen on punishing fellow colleagues for delaying or denying information.
 

JUSTICE 4 ALL !


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