02-26-2009, 11:10 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Govt tries its best to blunt RTI teeth</b>
pioneer.com
Nidhi Sharma | New Delhi
PMO, Finance Ministry among top three naysayers
The Right to Information (RTI) still remains a distant dream for the common man. The latest report of the Central Information Commission (CIC) reveals that 9 per cent of RTI applications are still rejected by several Ministries; with the Ministry of Finance, Personnel and Prime Ministerâs Office topping the list of Government departments throwing out most number of such requests.
This is not all. There is little hope for applicants knocking at the door of even the CIC, the final appellate authority for the RTI Act, 2005. <b>The annual report 2006-07 of CIC shows that its disposal rate of petitions is quite dismal, hovering just slightly above the half-way mark. On an average, only 55.6% of RTI petitions were disposed of by the CIC during 2006-07. The performance has actually dipped as it was above 90% in 2005-06 - the first year of RTI Act implementation. The commission had disposed of 97.8% of the appeals and 95.6% of the complaints in the previous year. However, in 2006-07, the corresponding numbers were 68.45% and 42.1% only.</b>
The pendency has also increased manifold in the CIC. The report reveals that it had only 486 pending petitions at the beginning of 2006-07. However, this balance increased six times over the previous year and the pendency was 3,251 in 2007-08. The report clearly identifies this challenge, stating: âEven though the disposal rate has increased over months, the challenge before CIC is how to improve this rate further.â On an average, public authorities disposed of barely 66% of the requests received.
There is also a growing reluctance among the public authorities to reveal their performance on the RTI front. Public authorities file âannual returnsâ before CIC, revealing how they fared in terms of RTI requests received, disposed of or rejected. While 89.2% of the public authorities filed their annual returns in 2005-06, the percentage dipped to 83.5% in 2006-07.
Experts have often pointed out that the CIC load is increasing because of the reluctance of appellate authorities to impose a penalty. This reluctance makes public information officers (PIOs) more brazen and they wrongfully reject requests using different clauses of the RTI Act. The CIC, however, has made only slight improvement on this front. While in 2005-06 not even a single penalty was imposed on errant PIOs, in 2006-07 this number increased to a mere 24, with only 13 penalties being recovered.
<b>The report notes that the number of requests rejected by the Ministries has come down slightly, from 14% to 9%. The worst performers on this criterion are the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and the PMO. While the Finance Ministry rejected 33% of the requests received, Personnel and PMO rejected almost 19% of the requests. The other Ministries who have made it to the top 10 list include the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Defence, Labour, Communications and Information Technology, Home Affairs, Railways and Urban Development</b>.
The RTI Act implementation, however, has a silver lining. With increasing awareness among people, the number of applications increased seven times in 2006-07 over 2005-06. This increasing load did not deter several departments, some of which disposed of 100% of the requests received. These best performers include the Cabinet Secretariat, Comptroller and Auditor General, Election Commission of India, Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region and the Ministry of External Affairs. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
pioneer.com
Nidhi Sharma | New Delhi
PMO, Finance Ministry among top three naysayers
The Right to Information (RTI) still remains a distant dream for the common man. The latest report of the Central Information Commission (CIC) reveals that 9 per cent of RTI applications are still rejected by several Ministries; with the Ministry of Finance, Personnel and Prime Ministerâs Office topping the list of Government departments throwing out most number of such requests.
This is not all. There is little hope for applicants knocking at the door of even the CIC, the final appellate authority for the RTI Act, 2005. <b>The annual report 2006-07 of CIC shows that its disposal rate of petitions is quite dismal, hovering just slightly above the half-way mark. On an average, only 55.6% of RTI petitions were disposed of by the CIC during 2006-07. The performance has actually dipped as it was above 90% in 2005-06 - the first year of RTI Act implementation. The commission had disposed of 97.8% of the appeals and 95.6% of the complaints in the previous year. However, in 2006-07, the corresponding numbers were 68.45% and 42.1% only.</b>
The pendency has also increased manifold in the CIC. The report reveals that it had only 486 pending petitions at the beginning of 2006-07. However, this balance increased six times over the previous year and the pendency was 3,251 in 2007-08. The report clearly identifies this challenge, stating: âEven though the disposal rate has increased over months, the challenge before CIC is how to improve this rate further.â On an average, public authorities disposed of barely 66% of the requests received.
There is also a growing reluctance among the public authorities to reveal their performance on the RTI front. Public authorities file âannual returnsâ before CIC, revealing how they fared in terms of RTI requests received, disposed of or rejected. While 89.2% of the public authorities filed their annual returns in 2005-06, the percentage dipped to 83.5% in 2006-07.
Experts have often pointed out that the CIC load is increasing because of the reluctance of appellate authorities to impose a penalty. This reluctance makes public information officers (PIOs) more brazen and they wrongfully reject requests using different clauses of the RTI Act. The CIC, however, has made only slight improvement on this front. While in 2005-06 not even a single penalty was imposed on errant PIOs, in 2006-07 this number increased to a mere 24, with only 13 penalties being recovered.
<b>The report notes that the number of requests rejected by the Ministries has come down slightly, from 14% to 9%. The worst performers on this criterion are the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and the PMO. While the Finance Ministry rejected 33% of the requests received, Personnel and PMO rejected almost 19% of the requests. The other Ministries who have made it to the top 10 list include the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Defence, Labour, Communications and Information Technology, Home Affairs, Railways and Urban Development</b>.
The RTI Act implementation, however, has a silver lining. With increasing awareness among people, the number of applications increased seven times in 2006-07 over 2005-06. This increasing load did not deter several departments, some of which disposed of 100% of the requests received. These best performers include the Cabinet Secretariat, Comptroller and Auditor General, Election Commission of India, Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region and the Ministry of External Affairs. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->