Is the Central Info Commission moving backwards ?

[karira]

http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Minutes/Minutes10042012.pdf

In the meeting of Info Commissioners held on 10.04.2012, the commission decided to discontinue the digitization of incoming dak except for the registries of CIC SM and IC SG. The digitisation will only happen for other registries if they are willing to work online.

This basically means that except for these two registries, the other registries do not want to work online and therefore they do not feel the need for digitisation.

Just wondering, if this is the case, as to how will CIC implement Sec 4(1)(a) of the RTI Act !

CIC also proposed a "Grievance Redressal Mechanism" to be headed by the Secretary of the Commission (presently Mr B B Srivastava)

It seems that the Commission is not too enthused with the concept of a Citizens Charter !

Note given by IC SG is available here:http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Minutes/CC-Note-5-Feb.pdf

[karira]

Sponsorer

As reported by Himanshi Dhawan in timesofindia.indiatimes.com on 20 April 2012:
CIC defers adopting a citizens’ charter - The Times of India

CIC defers adopting a citizens’ charter

NEW DELHI: Central Information Commission(CIC) may be preaching transparency to public authorities but it has trouble following its own advice. The Commission has put off adopting a citizens' charter for the last six months due to lack of consensus among information commissioners.

The citizens' charter drafted by information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi stipulates that all pending appeals and complaints will be displayed on the website along with timelines and processes. The draft suggested that cases be addressed in two months and acknowledgements given to appellants and complainants within 30 days. The compelling argument in setting deadlines for addressing RTI complaints was that unless information is provided within a timeframe, it proves to be irrelevant.

There are over 26,500 cases pending before the CIC as of January, 2012, registering a 12% rise since last year. According to estimates, at the current rate of increase CIC would have 80,000 pending cases in 2016 even if it continues its current rate of disposal at 35,000 annually. This could make the Commission redundant.

Responding to criticism that the CIC was shirking from its responsibility in tackling the large pendency of cases, chief information commissioner Satyananda Mishra admitted, ''There has been no consensus on the issue of introducing a citizens' charter so the Commission has decided to wait till Parliament passes the legislation to see what shadow it will cast on the working of quasi-judicial bodies.''

Sources said that the issue has been raised in the Commission meeting at least thrice since September, 2011, but put off each time for further discussion. Among the concerns that have been red-flagged include that there is no need for a citizens' charter since no quasi-judicial or judicial body has one. There were also objections to setting time lines. Mishra said that commissioners felt it would be prudent to wait till the law came into force.

Commission sources stressed that unless a timeframe was set to tackle the pending cases, the implementation of the Act would be at risk. As a source argued, ''As the waiting time at the Commission increases it reduces the pressure on public information officers and reduces the effectiveness of the Act.'' Sources also argued that judicial commissions like the National Commission for Minorities and Delhi district courts have citizens' charter.

[ranjan1]

Agenda-2: A note on electronic records retention schedule for the Commission.

The commission approved the electronic record retention Schedule for it. It directed that it may come into effect immediately. It also desired that the scanning of all daks would be discontinued henceforth save for the registries of the Sri Satyananda Mishra, Chief IC and Sri Shailesh Gandhi, IC. However the facility of scanning of the current dak may be extended to the registries willing to work online. The secretariat was directed to issue the necessary order immediately in view of the in principle decision.

in other words each dak will be scanned ( in my view ) one cannot retain the record electronically if it is not scanned
i think it is twin edged - Yes also NO also

[karira]

in other words each dak will be scanned ( in my view ) one cannot retain the record electronically if it is not scanned
i think it is twin edged - Yes also NO also

The Electronic Record Retention schedule will be obviously applicable only to those records which are in electronic form.
For those records, which are not digitized, the normal record retention schedule should apply.

[sharadphadke]

Hence Dy Registrar Mahapatra of IC DS was advising me not to file online appeal or complaints and file with only Hard Copy.

It means they don't know to operate computers including IC

This conversion was when he rang me up to get some clarifications on my RTI about present status of my appeal as I had sent hard copies 3 times since showing signed copy not received.!!!