Utter lethargy in State Information Commission

 It was in 2005, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government introduced India’s first Right to Information Act, an anti-corruption measure that was intended to provide citizens access to records and documents kept by local and central authorities. Applicants submit questions attached to a simple request for information. The RTI law gave hundreds of millions of Indians the ability to hold the country’s vast bureaucracy to account, and, it was hoped, to arrest the endemic corruption in its ranks. The RTI law had been a central plank of the Congress campaign in the 2004 general elections

This is an old story as the present performance of the Commission, particularly in Kerala, is a damp squib. Any Government agency can keep unanswered for RTI application and its first appeal as the second appeal to the State Information Commission remains unattended for many years. There are many complainants against the State Information Commission about its inefficacy to the settle cases violating RTI Act. The Commission may have its justification like shortage of staff and other infrastructure. Then the responsibility goes to the UDF ministry  which boasts  much for achievements in the State. The State Information Commission has turned out into a white elephant to feed some worn-out Government Staff and unworthy old politicians where lakhs of rupees are  siphoned for no work. The time delay is the worst handicap all the cases in judicial forums, likewise  the Information Commission has also entered into the bottle neck utter lethargy.  Hereinafter people would not expect any quick action for their RTI requests as the condition of the State RTI Commission is deplorably poor.

If the agency, which has the  power to impose penalties on recalcitrant officials, sits ideal , no one is going to submit  petitions under RTI Act.  An unlimited time permission to SIC to handle appeals is a major fault of RTIA 2005. Unless something is done immediately to protect the RTI Act, which is intended to spot the beginning of a new era of corruption-free India, it would then mark another dark era of the country.

K A Solaman