CIC to act against babus refusing reply to RTI pleas

CRACKING THE WHIP Transparency watchdog to consider demand to penalise civil servants who avoid such applications

NEW DELHI: Chief information commissioner (CIC) Radha Kumar Mathur on Tuesday promised to favourably consider demands that the transparency watchdog imposes penalties on civil servants who avoid responding to right to information (RTI) requests.

Mathur’s promise came at a meeting with RTI activists convened by the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) where poor implementation of proactive disclosures was being discussed.

A study released last week pointed out that information commissions had become impediments to implementation of the law. The report said that most decisions taken by them were without justification and often public information officers were let off the hook without penalties in 99% of the cases.

Mathur heard the grievances of members of the forum some of who said that the penalties levied by the CIC had not been implemented. He then said that he was willing to resolve to impose penalties wherever required. The CIC also agreed to come up with a format for the orders which ensures they are complete.

The study had estimated that 60% of orders issued by the commissions were incomplete and did not record basic information.

The study – that analysed the time taken by commissions to decide an information appeal and the quality of the orders – said information commissions were increasingly failing to deliver on their mandate.

And this inability to perform started from the time a citizen filed an appeal against denial of information, the report added.

Penalties were imposed in only 1.3% of the cases where delays in information occured, according to Anjali Bharadwaj of Sartak Nagrik Sangathan (SNS) said.

Financially, this means that the reluctance of the commissions nationwide cost the exchequer `290 crore.

“But even more important than the revenue lost is the loss of deterrence value that the threat of penalty was supposed to have provided,” Bharadwaj said.

A STUDY RELEASED LAST WEEK POINTED OUT THAT INFORMATION COMMISSIONS HAD BECOME IMPEDIMENTS TO IMPLEMENTING LAW