As reported by Sonal Kellog on howrah.org on 28 April 2008: No NCW reply to RTI query - Howrah News Service - Latest news and headlines on Howrah and West Bengal No NCW reply to RTI query
New Delhi, April 28: The National Commission for Women could not locate the relevant documents concerning the meeting of chairperson of NCW Girija Vyas with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
This was revealed when an application was filed for information at the NCW under the Right to Information Act. The NCW also failed to answer an application under the Right to Information Act 2005 on the basic information sought about the number of members in the commission and their responsibilities and roles in more than two months.
The applicant filed by
RTI activist retired commodore Lokesh Batra asked for information about the number of complaints received by the NCW in the wake of the Nithari killings of children which were discovered in Noida. He also asked about the action taken by the NCW and other information from the NCW.
But the NCW failed to reply to him. When he filed a first appeal to the appellate authority, the public information officer instead wrote to him saying, "I am to inform you that the correspondance between chairperson of NCW and honourable Prime Minister and Smt. Sonia Gandhi is not traceable in the files of the commission".
Mr Batra said, "This shows that the NCW is not serious about implementing the
RTI and it also reveals that the documentation at NCW is not properly done."
Since he did not receive any reply to his application filed on December 20, 2007 about the organisation structure of NCW, he applied to the central information commission to order the NCW to provide the information as soon as possible and also to penalise the concerned officer.
Former Commodore Batra asked for information about the total number of members sanctioned in NCW including the chairperson, their names, designations, date of joining and responsibilities. He also asked about the number of tours undertaken by each member and the leave details fo all the members from January 1 2005 to December 31, 2006.