Bhubaneswar: Following regular delays in hearing and providing information, RTI activists here have accused the State Information Commissioners (SICs) of debilitating the act in a bid to protect corrupt and erring officers.
Presenting detailed information against the State Chief Information Commissioner (SCIC) and the two SICs, the activists have accused the officers of poor implementation of the RTI act by intentionally delaying the cases to three or up to four years and thereby protecting the interests of lackadaisical Public Information Officers (PIOs) across different departments in Odisha.
According to an RTI response by Santosh Mohanty of Mayurbhanj district, Sunil Kumar Mishra, SCIC, was found out to do moderately well in terms of disposing RTI cases in comparison to the two SICs, Sashiprava Bindhani and LN Patnaik.
“Within three years, while Sunil Mishra disposed 2,960 complaints and 412 of Second Appeal (SA) cases, Sashiprava Bindhani has disposed only 1,977 complaints and 354 cases which is around 1,000 less than the disposal figures of SCIC. Meanwhile, LN Patnaik, former District Judge appointed as Information Commissioner who got retired in May, 2019 had disposed 1,676 complaints and 207 SA cases,” the RTI said.
The monthly rate of disposal of cases was found to be 93 in Mishra’s case while Bindhani managed only 64, the RTI added. Moreover, the findings also suggested that while the SCIC fixed on an average 18 cases per day, the SICs Bindhani and Patnaik were found to have fixed 17 and 15 respectively.
“The primary work of the Commission is to adjudicate the cases as expeditiously as possible, so that the aggrieved citizens will get justice in time. The inefficient and inexperienced Information Commissioners, who are appointed due to political considerations or for their nexus with corrupt bureaucracy, could not hear or dispose the cases timely or effectively despite a hefty salary and multiple allowances amounting to Rs. 2.80 lakh per month,” said RTI activist Pradip Pradhan here.
Moreover, the activists primarily accused Bindhani to protect the erring PIOs and safeguarding the corrupt officials. In her three years’ tenure, Bindhani has imposed penalty in only five cases with a total fine of only Rs. 33,000. The RTI suggested that her counterpart L N Patnaik had imposed penalty in 29 cases, amounting to a total of Rs. 4, 16,502, the SCIC imposed penalty in 84 cases with a highest of Rs. 8,54,500.