Transfer order of STC driver, who sought information under RTI Act, stayed

K.T. Sangameswaran,The Hindu

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has granted interim stay of the operation of a State Transport Corporation order transferring a driver, who sought information from his employer under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Justice K. Chandru ordered notice.

R. Ravikumar stated that he was a driver in Mettupalayam-2 branch of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, Coimbatore. Not satisfied with politically affiliated trade unions, he and some other likeminded employees wanted to set up the Driver Conductor Social Welfare Association.

He was also trying to get the grievances of employees, who proposed to join the new union, redressed. In the process, he requested the Public Information Officer to furnish details of the functioning of the Corporation.

In the reply, certain information was true and the others irrelevant. He sought the details of the functioning of the legal section.

He failed to get the information but earned officials’ displeasure. In January this year, he was informed that he should go to the branch office and receive his transfer order.

He informed the branch manager and officials that unless he was informed of genuine reasons for his transfer, he would not accept the order but would go on fast with his family in front of the branch office.

He submitted a representation to the General Manager in January. After nearly six months, he was relieved from duty on July 14 and asked to report at Gudalur the next day. The relieving order was issued before the transfer order dated January 22.

He said that the transfer was with the mala fide intention of punishing him for seeking information under the RTI Act.

Punjab varsity seeks Rs 12L for RTI reply

TNN 2 November 2009 TOI CHANDIGARH: Chandigarh’s Panjab University (PU) has asked an LLM student, Varun Malik, to pay a whopping Rs 12.22 lakh for replies that he had sought to 19 queries under the Right to Information Act. Malik alleged that PU asked him to pay through the nose to discourage him from seeking information that could blow the lid off various scams on the campus. The officials maintain that Malik has to pay the fee as RTI rules make it clear that the petitioner has to pay Rs 2 per page for the information sought. ‘‘The information Malik has sought runs into more than 6 lakh pages,’’ an official said. Malik is unconvinced. ‘‘It’s surprising that the information would run into so many pages,’’ he said. PU has sent Malik two reminders for the payment, saying the information was almost complete. He has been advised to avoid using ‘‘unparliamentary” language while talking to its officials.

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.

Anna Hazare, Aamir Khan want Kiran Bedi to hold top RTI job

Abhinav Garg & Anil Singh,TOI NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The issue of who succeeds Wajahat Habibullah as the country's chief information commissioner has taken on an interesting dimension with film star Aamir Khan, social activist Anna Hazare, RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal and a procession of renowned personalities mounting a vigorous campaign for the baton to be handed over to the first woman IPS officer, Kiran Bedi. Hazare, Aamir and a host of eminent persons have written to PM Manmohan Singh as well as Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, making a strong pitch that Bedi had the best credentials for a job that is crucial for promoting transparency in governance. "If you are appointing another person, please let us know how that person is more suitable than Kiran Bedi," says the letter. Signatories include Subhash Chandra of the Zee group, while several other celebrities such as Narayana Murthy of Infosys, are sending their letters on Monday. The letter comes in the wake of fears that the hard-earned, albeit limited, progress on the right to information is endangered with bureaucracy invoking the specious plea of public interest to negate the gains. A recent study showed that less than one-third of RTI applicants got the information they sought. The judiciary is yet to warm up to the idea of public disclosure of assets of judges, and the resistance seems to have encouraged the bureaucracy. As a matter of fact, secretaries of key ministries at the Centre are meeting on Tuesday to discuss whether public servants should be made liable to disclose their assets under RTI Act. The CIC under Habibullah had several run-ins with the bureaucracy as it sought to push the transparency envelope. Though he did not always succeed in the face of entrenched opposition, the country's first chief information commissioner, with access to the top echelons of power, often managed to hold his own. Information rights activists are wary of the bureaucracy seeking to influence the selection process to help install someone as the CIC who will not be a hurdle in their efforts to reclaim lost ground. "We have learnt that the government is appointing a person of its choice as CIC this week without the wide consultation that is needed for it," said Kejriwal, echoing the fear that a determined attempt would be made to roll back the progress in making transparency a right available to every Indian citizen. Obviously, the two information commissioners -- M M Ansari and A N Tiwari -- who are in contention for the job don't inspire much confidence among the activists. They cite the findings of a study analysing the performance of information commissioners to justify their scepticism as well as why they consider Bedi to be the ideal replacement for Habibullah. A national tennis champ, Bedi joined the Indian Police Service in 1972. She received the Magsaysay award in 1994 for her work in prison reforms as inspector-general of police in charge of Tihar jail. Bedi opted for voluntary retirement in 2007 after being overlooked for the post of Delhi police commissioner. The CIC is chosen by a three-member panel comprising the PM, the Leader of Opposition and a Cabinet minister nominated by the PM (Veerappa Moily). The post is at par with that of the chief election commissioner and the term is five years or up to the age of 65. Section 12(5) of the RTI Act states: "The chief information commissioner and information commissioners shall be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance." To give such persons a fair chance to apply, RTI activists say, the government must cast its net far and wide, all over India and in all walks of life. It must advertise the position, attract a good number of candidates and select the best from among them with proper screening procedures. Hand-picking people from a small inner circle at DoPT, PMO and Central Information Commission, as it is doing now, is a sure way of "defeating excellence, nurturing mediocrity and protecting vested interests" within the administration, say RTI activists. Speaking to TOI from Oman, Bedi said the news that Aamir and Anna Hazare had recommended her name for the post was "interesting". However, the feisty former cop wondered if such recommendations mattered. "I wonder if these letters carry any weight with the government. If the responsibility comes through, I will serve the country but won't take any salary. I am independent since the past two years and don't need any salary from the government. If they still insist, I would like to donate it to my foundation for poor children," Bedi said.

Trial run of video conferencing At Tamilnadu

Jeeva, TOI CHENNAI: The much-awaited video conferencing facility at the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission (TNSIC) is likely to become reality next month. With the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) scheduled to complete installation of equipment at a cost of Rs 15 lakh at the commission's headoffice in Teynampet by October 31, officials in the commission said that the new system would be put on trial for ten days once installation is complete. "ELCOT has already demonstrated how the system works and it is now coordinating with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and BSNL. We have reminded ELCOT to complete installation as per schedule. Once it is over, the system will be interlinked with the existing video conferencing facility in the other district headquarters in Tamil Nadu in a few days for trial run,'' official sources in the information commission told The Times India. With various departments in the secretariat and in NIC's office in Besant Nagar already using the video conferencing facility, the commission wanted ELCOT to arrange for a separate line so that the commission's hearings could be conducted smoothly. "We expected the facility to be ready by July or August. However, it has taken longer as various agencies are involved. Now, everything has been finalised and we are awaiting installation of equipment,'' said S Ramakrishnan, chief information commissioner. "It will be a great help not only to appeallants but also to us, since every week two information commissioners visit the districts to conduct hearings,'' Ramakrishnan pointed out. Presently, the commission hears about 100 to 150 RTI appeals a day, most of them from outside Chennai. The commission's move to introduce video conferencing for hearing cases has evoked a welcome response from appellants, particularly from other districts. "We need not travel to Chennai to participate in hearings. We appeal to the state commission to arrange for online filing of appeals as implemented by the Central Information Commission (CIC),'' said N Baskaran from Pollachi. CIC, in New Delhi, has for more than two years now been hearing cases from across India with the help of video conferencing.

Warning against misusing RTI Act

The Hindu CHENNAI: There are 17 types of information, ranging from log books and records to memos, maintained by a government department which the public can access using the Right to Information (RTI) Act. All that one needs to exercise this fundamental right to information is a sheet of paper and a Rs.10 worth legal stamp. All this and more was discussed at a dissemination meet to commemorate the celebration of RTI week (October 6-12) held at the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University here on Monday. Speaking on the occasion, V. Srikumar, law officer of the University, said that according to official statistics, over 1.11 lakh RTI applications have been filed in the State in the past four years. More than 43,000 applications were filed in 2008 alone. “The trend of seeking information through the RTI is picking up. People are beginning to appreciate the power of the Act and Tamil Nadu is one of the States where a vast number of applications have been filed,” said Mr. Srikumar. “The RTI Act has also made government departments more efficient by forcing officials to maintain the records properly,” said Meer Mustafa Hussain, Vice-Chancellor of the University. “Websites are also promptly updating anticipating request for information,” he added. He however had a word of caution for the public and said that the Act is meant to help them and should not be used as a tool to harass the administration. The NCC Directorate organised a lecture on Monday as part of the Week at Agarwal Vidhyalaya in which Sartaj Imam, Deputy Director General of NCC, addressed the students. Awareness rally An awareness rally on RTI Act was organised by the cadets of 1 (TN) battery NCC at Avadi. The unit is conducting a CATC-cum-SSB camp at CRPF, Avadi, from October 6th to October 15th. The rally was flagged off by camp commandant Lt. Col. Ravikumar. About 300 cadets took part in the rally carrying banners and placards spreading the importance of the Act.

Government programmes should focus on efficiency of delivery: Pranab Mukherjee

New Delhi, Nov 3 : Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that efficiency of delivery has to increasingly become the focus of Government programmes, as there is an urgent need to strengthen the accountability mechanisms in the public domain. Addressing the two-day Annual Economic Editors’ Conference in the national capital, Mukherjee said the implementation of the Right to Information Act (RTI) at the Centre and in many States, the setting up of the National Authority to operationalise the Unique ID number, and launch of National Skill Development Corporation are some steps in the direction of improving governance with regard to delivery of public services. “Steps are being taken to strengthen the project monitoring and evaluation system for public programmes and linking the performance and feedback with subsequent allocations of resources and continuation of programmes,” Mukherjee said. The minister also said that the objective of deepening and broadening the agenda for inclusive development is a major commitment of the Government. “To ensure that no individual, community or region is denied the opportunity to participate in and benefit from the development process and that there is food for all, education for all and health for all, the Government has undertaken a paradigm shift for making the development process more inclusive,” Mukherjee said. “It involves creating entitlements backed by legal guarantee in those areas of the development process, where existing institutional arrangements and delivery mechanisms have so far been unsuccessful in breaking down the barriers to universal access to basic public goods and opportunities for livelihood,” he added. Mukherjee further said that the Government has already seen great success in programmes such as the NREGA that have been implemented as a part of the initiative. “In the past months extensive review of the programme has been undertaken and changes introduced to make it more effective and flexible in meeting local concerns. However, there is still a long way to go and we need to further improve the momentum of our efforts,” the Finance Minister said. “For us, economic growth has to be an instrument for development and not an end in itself. It has to be not only inclusive but also equitable so as to sustain it over long period. In the last five years, we have moved steadfastly in that direction and I am sure that we will cover considerable ground in the next five years,” Pranab added.

Make RTI Act available in all Indian languages, says vice president

New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) Vice President Hamid Ansari Tuesday expressed concern over unavailability of information on the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, or the act itself in 22 official languages of India and said this needs to be addressed at the earliest. Ansari was speaking at the second and the concluding day of the 4th annual RTI convention oragnised by the Central Information Commission (CIC) here. The two-day convention is organized by the Central Information Commission and its theme this year was ‘Strengthening Right to Information’. ‘The website of the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions has the RTI Act in only 11 languages. The web sites of most information commissions are not multilingual covering the official languages adopted by the appropriate governments,’ he said while delivering his valedictory address. ‘For example, the CIC does not have a Hindi website for dissemination of information. Likewise, neither the RTI Act nor data on the web sites of Information Commissions of states where Urdu is the second official language are available in Urdu. This issue needs to be addressed at the earliest,’ he added. The vice president further said that empowerment would be meaningless if it is sought to be achieved through a language that the citizen does not understand. The RTI Act was passed by the central government in June 2005 after years of struggle by NGOs and civil society groups. It came into force October 12, 2005, and completed four years Monday. Ansari also raised concern over suo motto disclosure by the government authorities and about organisations that are covered under the definition of ‘public authority’ one way or another but have not come forward pro-actively to be covered by the act. He said that the previous conventions of the CIC came forth with an exhaustive list of recommendations. ‘I am not aware about the extent of acceptance and implementation of these recommendations by various stake holders. The collective outcome of a convention of information commissioners must be subject to serious deliberation and active consideration, with a view to appropriate implementation. I hope the results of this convention will also be seriously studied and lead to better implementation of the act,’ he added. ‘Far from being a nuisance to the process of governance, it is such dissatisfaction that propels government to improve its functioning, be sensitive and empathetic to the problems of citizens and ensures efficient allocation and spending of public resources,’ he said. The two-day convention is being attended by representatives of civil society and media, both from within the country and from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.