ACTIVISTS DECRY LACK OF RTI EXECUTION IN NUAPADA DIST

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ACTIVISTS DECRY LACK OF RTI EXECUTION IN NUAPADA DIST

Tuesday, 02 December 2014 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in Bhubaneswar
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Right to Information (RTI) activists of Nuapada district have expressed discontent over the way the Public Information Officers (PIOs) of various public authorities are dealing with the RTI applications.
“The Public Authorities show a lackadaisical attitude towards RTI; they never provide information in time. The heads of the offices as the first appellate authority also do not respond to the appeals in time. Inspection of documents under Sec 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act is not allowed,” the activists said.
“The Public Authorities apply several strategies to deny information. First, they would try to persuade the applicant not to file application. Second, to maintain silence and wait till the State Information Commission (SIC) takes up the matter and directs the Public Authorities to provide information, and if they fail in this two then they will ask the applicant to deposit n abnormally high amount of information fees without mentioning the number of pages to be provided,” said RTI activist of Khariar block Kshirasindhu Sagaria.
Sagaria has applied to different Public Authorities of the district and is waiting for more than a year to get the information.
“The SIC is yet to hear my appeals although more than a year has passed,” he added.
The delay in hearing by the SIC and exonerating the PIOs from punishment, even if they are found guilty, encourages the PIOs to play their own games. “Exposing corruption becomes difficult due to such strategies played by the PIOs. The SIC is also equally responsible for this,” said activist Hiralal Majhi of Boden.
Public Authorities apparently know that the hearing of the second appeal would be delayed, and by that time the applicant would have lost his interest. Kshirasindhu Sagaria had applied to the PIO of Khariar Tehasil for information on stone quarries. The Tehsildar Office did not provide the information as required, and when Sagaria sent the first appeal by post, his letter was returned. Now, he has sent the second appeal to the SIC but does not know whether his application has been accepted.
In another case, the Minor Irrigation Office of Khariar has asked Sagaria to deposit Rs32,000 for providing information on agreement papers signed by contractors for construction works in the district. The PIO did not answer how many pages are to be provided when Sagaria requested the PIO to provide the detail breakups of the fees.
“My first appeal has not been answered by the office; if I go for the second appeal, more than a year will elapse,” Sagaria rued.
The PIOs in most offices, however, complain that a lot of their official time is wasted for RTI. “Our day-to-day work is hampered due to this RTI,” said most of the PIOs.
The RTI Act as a weapon to reduce corruption and to bring transparency in governance would fail to yield result if Government officials do not act proactively, say activists.

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