Officials still to get their RTI Act right

[karira]

As reported by TNN in timesofindia.indiatimes.com on 15 November 2008:
Officials still to get their RTI Act right-Hyderabad-Cities-The Times of India

Officials still to get their RTI Act right

HYDERABAD: Even after three years since the Right to Information Act was introduced in Andhra Pradesh it seems that the state is still far from achieving what it had initially set out to accomplish. At a review meeting of the act chaired by state's chief information commissioner (CIC) C D Arha, officials from the seven participating districts appeared extremely casual about the proceedings.

For starters, Hyderabad district collector Naveen Mittal seemed clueless as to why their website was not upgraded to make information available to public (according to Section 415(b) of the Act). Joint collector of Medak, Rama Shankar Naik, happened to be the lone soldier with some vague details from the various departments under his jurisdiction. If some districts saw their officers walk in without their documents supposed to be reviewed, there were others who were left with no answers when the information commission questioned the absence of some of their most important representatives.

The meeting also saw officials stating trivial reasons for failing to dispose applications within the stipulated time of 30 days. While one officer said that his department had failed to gather information the applicant had asked for within that timeframe, another official from Hyderabad district said that his department had misplaced the particular file and hence the delay.

What surprised Arha was despite such callousness there were no penalties imposed on any officer so far and stressed the need to do so in the future. The dissatisfaction of the commission because of the complacent attitude of officials was evident when information commissioner R Dileep Reddy snubbed a district officer for trying to make fun of a `flawed' application. "If you have the information that has been asked for, supply it or else don't. If you have to have fun, you can take a photocopy home and laugh as much as you want. Don't do it here," said Reddy.

However, despite several instances that highlighted the indifferent attitude of district officials, the concluding part of the meeting saw the top brass quote impressive figures relating to the `commendable work' done by the districts so far. The CIC stated that of the 18,998 applications received so far this year, 14,716 of them have already been disposed. Referring to international consulting group Pricewaterhouse Coopers report, the CIC also said that Andhra Pradesh secured a fairly high position in the country on RTI implementation.

[karira]

How did the PWC report come to the conclusion that AP had secured a "fairly high" position in RTI implementation ?

Please see:

The AP Information Commission has penalised only ONE PIO....
Info body goofs up PIO figure
Where are all the missing Second Appeals and Complaints of the APSIC ?
The strangest decision of a IC ever seen !
Astonishing analysis of AP CIC orders....
Strange interpretation of Sec 18(1) by A.P. SIC
Call to review RTI Act

I have received some even more astonishing information from the APSIC yesterday - regarding its productivity and efficiency. Will upload it later today with the analysis.