Victims call for war against red tape

[karira]

As reported by Sidharth Pandey on ndtv.com on 26 July 2008:
NDTV.com: Victims call for war against red tape

Victims call for war against red tape


IC O.P. Kejriwal

Start sacking babus and fix responsibility to cut red tape and corruption, that is the message coming from the Central Information Commission, the latest victim of babudom.

The plea of Central Information Commission is to get extra furniture and a field office, which has been pending in a government file for over two years now. This is simply because no one can take a decision.

Central Information Commissioner O P Kejriwal is one of the country's top five commissioners, apart from bringing in more transparency. He has to settle appeals in Right to Information cases, but appeals have been piling up.

Each commissioner has a backlog of at least four months and often ends up bringing work home. That is why, the commission had asked the government to help set up field offices in their homes.

Two years on, nothing has moved.

''I thought the issue was quite simple and should not have taken more than five minutes,'' said O P Kejriwal.

The commission's request for field offices has been seen by at least a 100 officers, but no one has acted on it. Now the exasperated commissioner has suggested a way out.

''Let there be a committee of five to six eminent people who I call as honest achievers, like TATA, Narayan Murthy, Swaminathan, who at random examine 50 files. They can see that there are unnecessary delays and the government officer has shirked responsibility, which have resulted in disasters,'' said Kejriwal.

''People may have lost their lives because of the delays in the decision. They should award severe punishment to the government officers, then this will set the whole system right,'' he added.

From birth to death most aspects of our lives are tracked and trapped in government files. Delays are usually created to extract bribes, and even cost lives. Time has come to shake up the system to bring in accountability.

[vijendra singh]

Thanks to Dr Kejriwal. He must be deserving to be Chief CIC. Other info com m. could also change their mindset. Who are stopping them & why ? If CIC/ SICs become like Kejriwal , i m quite sure every PIO will provide info correctly & completely within 5 days .