WHITHER R T I ACT - FINDINGS OF THE INVESTIGATIVE STUDY
Nandini Voice For The Deprived , a Chennai based NGO (www.nandinivoice.org) conducted an investigative study on the satisfaction level of RTI activists and citizens about the implementation of RTI Act in India.
Several persons from all over India responded to the investigative study and narrated their views and experience . Based on such response and discussions with cross section of RTI activists, the investigative study was completed and the findings of the study are given below.
Kindly publish the details in your esteemed newspaper.
Deteriorating response level :
As per the RTI Act ,the details should be sent by the concerned authorities to the information seekers within thirty days. When RTI Act was introduced with much fanfare, the government departments mostly responded to the request for information within the stipulated time. Even if the particular information could not be made available, there was acknowledgement of the request and explanations were provided about the action taken in the matter to provide appropriate reply.
However, in the last several months , there has been steep deterioration in the response level to the RTI queries . The Public Information Officers of several concerned departments do not anymore adhere to thirty days deadline and they seem to be taking it easy. They often respond only after several reminders and sometimes do not respond at all.
There are many instances when one government department would forward the letter to another department, stating that the other department would be the fit agency to reply, making the process a vicious cycle with the letters being tossed here and there .
The performance of the state government departments appear to be much worse than the departments belonging to central government.
Ineffective Information Commissioners :
In the event of not getting an acknowledgement or suitable reply, the option left for the RTI activists is to send the complaint to the Information Commissioner. While Information Commissioner forward such letters to the Appellate Authority directing that the reply should be sent within stipulated period, often Information Commissioner would not follow up the matter.
Several RTI activists complain that the Information Commissioners really function as "post office". Information Commissioners follow up and conduct enquiry only if the RTI activist would send repeated reminders and constantly call the Information Commissioner's office. The enquiry proceedings are also time consuming. There are many persons who have been waiting for reply and suitable action by Information Commissioners for more than one year.
What can a citizen do ?
If the Information Commissioner would routinely deal with the matter without taking any effective steps to force the government department to provide reply, then the options left for the citizen are very limited. In that case, citizens can only go to judiciary with his complaint and the hearing and judgement from the judiciary would be prolonged affair.
In such scenario, several activists give up in despair.
No fear of punishment :
The Public Information Officers of the concerned departments do not seem to have fear anymore that disciplinary action would be taken against them, if they would not respond with the reply within the stipulated time as per the provisions of the Act.
While there are hundreds of cases all over India of delayed response or nil response to the RTI request letters, there is no report of any punishment imposed on the Public Information officer or Information Commissioner for dereliction of duty.
Harassment :
Some RTI activists pointed out that when they would seek information about any issue, particularly such as land deal, sand quarrying etc. , the concerned departments sometimes leak out the matter to those who could be affected by the query and consequently they are threatened and harassed.
Several RTI activists warn that those seeking any information about the police have to be careful and cautious.
Pessimism about bringing political parties under RTI Act :
There are now several arguments and counter arguments about bringing political parties under RTI Act.
But, several of the RTI activists are of the view that even if political parties were to be brought under RTI Act, it would not make much difference , since they may not even acknowledge the receipt of the letters seeking information.
In a situation where even the government departments do not take the RTI Act seriously anymore , one cannot expect political parties to behave better.
Is RTI Act now only an empty measure ?:
Many RTI activists wonder whether the RTI Act has now been rendered as "toothless act" due to the indifference and lackadaisical approach of the several government departments.
Overall, there is huge dissatisfaction in the country about the quality of implementation of the RTI Act.
N.S.Venkataraman
Nandini Voice For The Deprived
Email:- nsvenkatchennai@gmail.com
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