Activists irked as red tapism creeps into RTI-filing process

Activists irked as red tapism creeps into RTI-filing process (times of india 30/3/09 chennai edition page no.2)

Jeeva | TNN
Chennai: T Sadagopan, a consumer activist in Pattabiram, was surprised to see his appeal under the Right To Information Act returned four months after he sent it to the Central Information Commission (CIC). The CIC sent him a four-page communication explaining how to file an appeal.
Stating that his appeal was not in accordance with the procedure prescribed, the CIC put a condition that the appellant, before sending an appeal to the commission, should give a copy to the public information officer of the department about which he had sought information and a copy to the head of that department, who is the first appellate authority, An acknowledgement of this should be enclosed with the appeal to the CIC.
The commission insisted that the appeal should also have documentary proof for the fee paid along with the original application. It should also contain two sets of copies of all the documents to get the appeal admitted for hearing, it said.
Sadagopan is not alone. The long process of filing an appeal has irked the community of RTI activists with many saying it is against the spirit of the RTI Act itself.
“The CIC has gradually introduced several unreasonable and unnecessary procedures as if it is a court where we cannot file a petition without an advocate. The commission just returned one of my appeals saying it should contain five sets of copies of the documents enclosed. I avoided filing three or four appeals with the CIC merely because of the cumbersome procedure. But it is not so in the case of the State Information Commission,’’ said V Gopalakrishnan, a social worker in K K Nagar.
“While the RTI Act encourages the filing of applications by not prescribing any specified format for it but stipulating that public information officers should help applicants write the application if they are illiterates or physically challenged persons, the CIC’s unwanted procedures discourages people from filing appeals,’’ said M Nizamudeen, general secretary of Consumer Confederation of India.
CIC chief commissioner Wajahat Habibullah admitted there were some proceedural difficulties and said many of them were being removed. “The appellants need not send a copy of the appeal to the PIO or the first appeallate authority now. We have also introduced online filing of appeals. The documents can be sent to us through e-mail,’’ he said.
jeeva.pugazvendan@timesgroup.com