Call to review RTI Act

[karira]

As reported by TNN in timesofindia.indiatimes.com on 3 August 2008:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/H...ow/3319815.cms

Call to review RTI Act

HYDERABAD: The Right to Information Act can be better implemented only if the judiciary is involved, Justice Jeevan Reddy said here on Saturday.

He was speaking at the launch of the 'Andhra Pradesh State Information Commission- Performance Appraisal' done by the United Forum for RTI Campaign (UFFRC) here.

"A disturbing thing in the implementation of the Act is rejection of applications based on procedural violations. This should not be the reason for rejecting applications," Jeevan Reddy said.

The review study was done by Umesh Varma Pakalapati and Rakesh Reddy Dubbudu of UFFRC. According to the report, nearly 60 per cent of applications have been rejected based on procedural lapses.

Jeevan Reddy said the Act was introduced to ensure better governance and reduce corruption. "If the procedural violations are deemed as obstacles, then the whole purpose of the Act is defeated," he said.

Participating in the meeting, former chairman of the Press Academy, Potturi Venkateshwara Rao, said though the RTI Act came into force in 2005, till now there was no review done about its effectiveness. It would have been ideal had the government reviewed the Act. The Assembly should have discussed the performance of the Act.

"On one occasion, a Supreme Court judge had observed that if applicants had exhausted the options, courts can intervene in helping one to get information," Venkateshwara Rao said.

Till date, in Andhra Pradesh penal fee was paid only to one person for being denied information. In Orissa, nearly 59 applicants were paid a penal fee of Rs 6,50,000.

In 2006, the number of applications were 8,864, while in 2007 it was 31,964.

According to UFFRC, the AP government had spent only Rs seven lakh for the publicity of the RTI Act of Rs 110 crore it had spent on publicity of different government schemes between 2004-07.

"There is disparity in the workload taken by different commissioners of the state information commission. Chief commissioner is taking all the important departments. Nearly, 50 per cent of the appeals are decided by him," Rakesh Reddy said.

[rakeshdubbudu]

Hello,
This is Rakesh - one of the authors of the report. PFA the copy of the report. Would like to hear opinions from activists here.

In solidarity,
Rakesh

[ganpat1956]

Thank you Rakesh for this exhaustive report.

[karira]

I really did not know while posting this news report, that this report was by one of our members !
Very good effort Rakesh.

Please also see the analysis done by me - ONLY of the AP CIC orders/decisions between 01 July 2008 and 31 August 2008. Comes to the same conclusion as you plus with added bonus of some strange orders.

Strange interpretation of Sec 18(1) by A.P. SIC
Astonishing analysis of AP CIC orders....

[prbhat_gen]

the attachment is not accessible to me

[jiwateshwar]

I wish I hadn't read that report. It is really disheartening!

[karira]

Originally Posted by jiwateshwar

I wish I hadn't read that report. It is really disheartening!

Welcome to the real RTI world !