Please spread the word about the demonstration.
Date: 16th March 2009, from 10 AM - 1 PM
Venue: Memorial Hall (Opposite to Government General Hospital. Near Chennai Central Railway Station)
Purpose: Demonstration against the poor functioning of the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission.
Background
The enactment of the Right to Information act, 2005 was expected to be a turning point in India's history as it was believed that this act would, for the first time, put both the common citizen and the Government servant in their right places. Of that of a master and a servant. And it did have wonderful effects. Citizens everywehere started demanding Information regarding the Government's functioning, and in the process ensuring their rights which they could not for all this time with other means. But this mail is not about the feel-good stories. It is about the biggest problem that the Right to Information act faces today in Tamil Nadu. And ironically, the problem is the Tamil Nadu Information Commission.
Ironical because, it is the Information Commission that was supposed to be the backbone of the act. Knowing fully well that Government servants would not easily part with Information about their functioing, the Act provided for setting up of a Central Information Commission and State Information commissions in each state whose powers are similar to that of a court. If an officer refuses to part with information, the Information Commission has to impose penalties on those officers. And it is this fear of punishment that forces the officer to disclose information.
But what is being observed today in the functioning of the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission is that, the Commission, far from the role enivsaged role of the being the saviour of the act, the functioning of the TN Information Commission is today the single biggest roadblock for an effective implementation of the Right to Information act in the state.
Problems
To see why the functioning of the Information Commission is a huge problem, the reasoning is straightforward. The three most important problems in the functioning of the State Information Commission are
1. Huge delays in disposal of cases. (close to 10 months)
2. Lenient attitude towards officers violating the act
3. And lack of follow-up of orders.
Consequences
The consequences of these problems are:
Due to problem 1 your cases take a very long time to be heard. This puts off most applicants from filing an appeal and emboldens the Government officers. And if you have the motivation to file an appeal with the commission and also have the patience to wait till the commission's order comes, you will be facing problem 2. The commission acts very leniently and only orders the officer to give you the information. No Show cause notice, no penalty, nothing. In the rare cases that the commission imposes a penalty, you face problem 3. No follow-up. Be it an order to supply information or a show cause notice for penalty or imposition of penalty itself, the commission just does not bother to follow-up. And so the most logical thing for the applicant to do next is to remind the commission that it has to do a follow-up. And no prizes for guessing, this takes the applicant back to the beginning where your reminder also takes a long time to be considered.
What we intend to do
A group of organisations interested in the effecive implementation of the Right to Information act, have made efforts at dialogues with the State Information Commission and have failed. Failed to the extent that the Chief Information Commissioner was even avoided giving us a date for a meeting with him. Hence we have decided to organise a demonstration against the commission's functioning at the Memorial hall in front of the Government General Hospital near the Central Railway station on 16th March 2009 from 10 AM - 1 PM.
We request you to join us in this effort in the interest of the common man. And also so that the efforts of so many people in bringing about such a legilsation in the first place would be in vain. Also help spreading the word. Let the citizens know how ineffectively the State Information Commission is functioning.
S.M.Arasu (Anti Corruption Movement)
Louis Menezes (Transparency International, India - TN Chapter)
L.S.Jeganathan (Tamil Nadu Lanjam Kodathor Iyakkam)
M.Sowmya (Citizen, consumer and civic Action Group)
Vijayanand (5th Pillar)
Siva Elango (Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam)
V.Gopalakrishnan (RTI Activist, MGR Nagar)
Rupesh Kumar (Corporate Accountability Desk)
V.Madhav (Association for India’s Development)
For more details please contact:
Madhav.
madhav.vishnubhatta@gmail.com
9840327303.
The actual letter sent to each of the Commissioners can be seen here.
Date: 16th March 2009, from 10 AM - 1 PM
Venue: Memorial Hall (Opposite to Government General Hospital. Near Chennai Central Railway Station)
Purpose: Demonstration against the poor functioning of the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission.
Background
The enactment of the Right to Information act, 2005 was expected to be a turning point in India's history as it was believed that this act would, for the first time, put both the common citizen and the Government servant in their right places. Of that of a master and a servant. And it did have wonderful effects. Citizens everywehere started demanding Information regarding the Government's functioning, and in the process ensuring their rights which they could not for all this time with other means. But this mail is not about the feel-good stories. It is about the biggest problem that the Right to Information act faces today in Tamil Nadu. And ironically, the problem is the Tamil Nadu Information Commission.
Ironical because, it is the Information Commission that was supposed to be the backbone of the act. Knowing fully well that Government servants would not easily part with Information about their functioing, the Act provided for setting up of a Central Information Commission and State Information commissions in each state whose powers are similar to that of a court. If an officer refuses to part with information, the Information Commission has to impose penalties on those officers. And it is this fear of punishment that forces the officer to disclose information.
But what is being observed today in the functioning of the Tamil Nadu State Information Commission is that, the Commission, far from the role enivsaged role of the being the saviour of the act, the functioning of the TN Information Commission is today the single biggest roadblock for an effective implementation of the Right to Information act in the state.
Problems
To see why the functioning of the Information Commission is a huge problem, the reasoning is straightforward. The three most important problems in the functioning of the State Information Commission are
1. Huge delays in disposal of cases. (close to 10 months)
2. Lenient attitude towards officers violating the act
3. And lack of follow-up of orders.
Consequences
The consequences of these problems are:
Due to problem 1 your cases take a very long time to be heard. This puts off most applicants from filing an appeal and emboldens the Government officers. And if you have the motivation to file an appeal with the commission and also have the patience to wait till the commission's order comes, you will be facing problem 2. The commission acts very leniently and only orders the officer to give you the information. No Show cause notice, no penalty, nothing. In the rare cases that the commission imposes a penalty, you face problem 3. No follow-up. Be it an order to supply information or a show cause notice for penalty or imposition of penalty itself, the commission just does not bother to follow-up. And so the most logical thing for the applicant to do next is to remind the commission that it has to do a follow-up. And no prizes for guessing, this takes the applicant back to the beginning where your reminder also takes a long time to be considered.
What we intend to do
A group of organisations interested in the effecive implementation of the Right to Information act, have made efforts at dialogues with the State Information Commission and have failed. Failed to the extent that the Chief Information Commissioner was even avoided giving us a date for a meeting with him. Hence we have decided to organise a demonstration against the commission's functioning at the Memorial hall in front of the Government General Hospital near the Central Railway station on 16th March 2009 from 10 AM - 1 PM.
We request you to join us in this effort in the interest of the common man. And also so that the efforts of so many people in bringing about such a legilsation in the first place would be in vain. Also help spreading the word. Let the citizens know how ineffectively the State Information Commission is functioning.
S.M.Arasu (Anti Corruption Movement)
Louis Menezes (Transparency International, India - TN Chapter)
L.S.Jeganathan (Tamil Nadu Lanjam Kodathor Iyakkam)
M.Sowmya (Citizen, consumer and civic Action Group)
Vijayanand (5th Pillar)
Siva Elango (Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam)
V.Gopalakrishnan (RTI Activist, MGR Nagar)
Rupesh Kumar (Corporate Accountability Desk)
V.Madhav (Association for India’s Development)
For more details please contact:
Madhav.
madhav.vishnubhatta@gmail.com
9840327303.
The actual letter sent to each of the Commissioners can be seen here.
3 comments:
There was no improvement in the attitude of the Information commissioners till date. For my RTI application, PIO and Appellate Authority did not give reply. For my reminder also, the AA did not reply. Enquiry was conducted at Tamilnadu Information Commission on 25-5-2009 after 9 months. The PIO and AA were not even warned. PIO gave false information. I again appealed at Information Commission. It will take another 8 months to hear.Net result, I am not getting the information from 23-2-2008 from the authorities.
Dhanabalan
There was no improvement in the attitude of the Information commissioners till date. For my RTI application, PIO and Appellate Authority did not give reply. For my reminder also, the AA did not reply. Enquiry was conducted at Tamilnadu Information Commission on 25-5-2009 after 9 months. The PIO and AA were not even warned. PIO gave false information. I again appealed at Information Commission. It will take another 8 months to hear.Net result, I am not getting the information from 23-2-2008 from the authorities.
Dhanabalan
Mr.Dhanabalan,
Can you send me the following documents related to your application
1.The RTI application
2.Reply from the PIO, First appeal
3. Reply to the first appeal
4. Second appeal
5. Order of the Commission
If you can scan these and send it to my email ID, I will have a look at it and use it when I get an opportunity to discuss the issue of the commission not sticking to the act with respect to penalties.
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