RTI Act: TN commission not facilitating access to info, say NGOs

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Right To Information Campaign (TNRTIC), a group of NGOs working in the area of the Right To Information (RTI) Act, onWednesday criticised the State Information Commission for giving false information pertaining to the availability of order copies. Releasing a report here on a national-level study conducted by National RTI Awards Secretariat, a Delhi-based NGO, on the functioning of 28 information commissions from across the country, TNRTIC coordinator Ossie Fernandes said that the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission was not included in the study since it had given false information to an RTI application filed by the National RTI Awards Secretariat in June this year. In its reply, the commission said that it had disposed off 40,400 complaints and appeals during 2008 and that all orders were uploaded on its website, while earlier it had uploaded only 900 orders, the TNRTIC coordinator pointed out. "The discrepancy between the disposal of 40,400 cases and the availability of only 900 orders lies at the crux of the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission's ineffectiveness in facilitating citizens' access to information,'' he added. Stating that the Tamil Nadu commission was passing orders without conducting hearings in 90% of the cases, Nithyanand Jayaraman, one of the coordinators, said that no other commission in the country followed such a procedure. "We urge the commission to conduct hearings whenever there is a prima facie case of delaying, refusing or providing incomplete or wrong information. In the absence of a hearing, public information officers will not take the commission's order seriously,'' Jayaraman said. "Although 70% of the orders of the commissions in the country are in favour of disclosure of information, many public authorities don't abide by it. The study revealed that RTI appellants before the information commissions have only 27% chance to get information; it did not beyond 40% even if the commission concerned ordered for it (disclosure),'' said V Madhav, another TNRTIC coordinator. The study parameters included overall public satisfaction, effectiveness, deterrent impact and pro-disclosure. It analysed 51,000 orders passed by the commissions and responses from about 6,000 appellants from across the country. The Karnataka State Information Commission topped in terms of overall public satisfaction, while the West Bengal State Information Commission was placed at the bottom.