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State info panel turns one: People unhappy with prevalent machinery</td></tr> <tr valign="top"><td colspan="3" height="10"> </td></tr> <tr valign="top"><td colspan="3">
Express News Service</td></tr> <tr valign="top"><td colspan="3" height="10"> </td></tr><tr valign="top"> <td colspan="3">
Lucknow, June 11: PROBLEMS have started teething at the State Information Commission (SIC), as it completes one year of it’s formation, following the implementation of the Right to Information Act. People seeking information in the commission feel that they are being given second hand treatment and the Public Information Officers (PIOs) are not punished. This was the outcome of the day-long public hearing on ‘One year of SIC’, organised by the Soochna Ka Adhikar Abhiyan Samiti at the Gandhi Bhawan auditorium on Monday.
The experts who were present in the hearing included State’s information commissioner Gyanendra Sharma, Information Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh Dilip Reddy, and RTI activist Dr Arvind Kejriwal. Over 200 people from various parts of the state participated in the hearing. Some 50 of them presented their case studies in front of the esteemed jury.
After a day-long presentation of the problems faced by the people, following shortcomings related to the SIC were found - Hearing continues for a large number of days in the commission, because of which the complainant suffers both mentally and financially, the PIOs often do not appear on the date of hearing, they do not respond as per the law and are not even being punished or penalised by the commission, the copies of decision by commission are not readily available and even the complainant has to deposit a fee for it, whereas in the other states, they are given for free. A report on these problems was presented by former IPS officer and activist SR Darapuri.
The RTI activist Dr Arvind Kejriwal said punishment is mandatory for the PIOs or else they would not have any fear of the commission or the act.
The state information commissioner Gyanendra Sharma said the commission is still in it’s infancy and faces lot of difficulties. He added that the commission is trying to solve all these problems.
State info panel turns one: People unhappy with prevalent machinery
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