RTI activists irked over delayed info

RTI activists irked over delayed info
Say State Commission Lax In Imposing Fines On Erring Govt Officials
Jeeva TNN Chennai: For over a year, V Gopalakrishnan, a right-to-information (RTI) activist in KK Nagar, has been waiting for the office of the Director-General of Police to reply to his application seeking details of city police officials who bought immovable properties during 2006-07 and 2007-08. Even the September 2009 State Information Commission (SIC) directive to the DGP’s office to furnish the information hasn’t helped. The RTI Act says the SIC shall impose a penalty on the public information officer (PIO) when the information is not furnished to an RTI applicant within 30 days of the date of receipt of the application, but activists say this rule is not strictly followed. Under Section 20 of the Act, the PIO shall be fined Rs 250 for each day of delay, subject to a maximum of Rs 25,000. “I submitted the RTI application in January 2009. This week, the DGP’s office informed the commission that it has forwarded my application to the home department. I do not know when I will get the information,’’ says Gopalakrishnan. In a case where the Chennai Corporation failed to reply for eight months to an RTI application seeking property tax payment details pertaining to the residences of some ministers, the commission did not fine the PIO concerned. As the commission only directed the civic body to provide the information and gave 30 days more, the applicant, V Madhav of Porur, said the commission should say why it was not imposing the fine. V Santhanam, an activist in Chromepet, filed an application last year with the commission seeking details of how many PIOs it had penalised so far. He hasn’t got a reply. “In many cases, the SIC is not strict in imposing a penalty when a PIO unreasonably delays providing information even after the commission’s orders. The commission’s lenience apparently emboldens public authorities not to adhere to the act,’’ said M Thuyamurthy, an RTI activist of Tondiarpet. While many government departments cite shortage of manpower and other constraints for not replying, sources in the information commission denied that it was lenient in imposing fines. “The commission issues show-cause notice to PIOs who fail to provide information within the stipulated time. Fine is being imposed when the PIOs’ reply is not satisfactory. But most such PIOs have now obtained stay orders from the court,’’ the sources said. Evading Penalty • State Information Commission receives 50 to 100 appeals a day, of which about 25% need inquiry • Hearings are conducted in an average of 35 cases every day • Penalties imposed against PIOs in over 50 cases in the last four years and most of the PIOs obtained court stay