Red tapism shadows RTI Act execution in UP

The information was given in a reply to an application filed by RTI activist Retired Commodore Lokesh K Batra to the Uttar Pradesh State Information Commission (UPSIC).

Batra had originally filed an RTI application with the UPSIC under Section 25 of the Act, which makes it mandatory for all State Information Commissions and the Central Information Commission to furnish reports on the implementation of law.

But he did not get the desired information even after filing the same RTI for two consecutive years.

In 2007, the UPSIC replied that the required information could not be provided, as the report of the Commission for the last year had not been prepared.

“Due to acute paucity of staff, no such statement could be prepared by the Commission as desired by you so far nor it is still in such a position as to prepare and provide the same in near future,” was the reply the RTI activist got.

Not ready to give up, Batra filed another RTI plea to know the monthly disposal of appeals and complaints with the UPSIC.

“The results were surprising. Cases accumulated despite the state having the highest number of information commissioners, which is the opposite of what should have happened,” he said.

“If this is the state in one year, then imagine the number of cases pending now (since the implementation of the RTI act),” Batra asked.

A comparison of the website of the UPSIC (upsic.up.nic.in) and the CIC (cic.gov.in) clearly indicates poor implementation of Section 4 of the Act, which makes it mandatory for the Commission to keep its website updated on the progress made on the complaints.

“The UPSIC has failed to maintain the required data in the website in compliance of the Act,” he said.

When contacted, Chief Commissioner, UPSIC, Justice M A Khan accepted paucity of staff as a reason for not maintaining documentation of the information and not updating the website.

He said: “We do not have either proper infrastructure or manpower. We have ten information commissioners and we work on a rotational basis. We gets lots of cases, but then we do not have basic staff like data operator or web designer.”

“Seeing the poor state of the SIC, the IAS officers are reluctant to continue working with us,” Khan said.

Batra said: “If this lackadaisical attitude comes from the State Information Commission, who are the highest authorities for taking to task the public authority, there will be no check on the public authorities and the administration of the state too,” Batra said.