The right is there but not information

BANGALORE: The government may have enacted a law empowering citizens to demand information from public authorities, but five years later many government departments are yet to take the “first step” towards proactive disclosure.

Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI act mandates that all authorities under the purview of the law must index, catalogue and computerise official records to be easily accessed by the people.

So far, however, few departments have paid heed to the provision, says K A Thippeswamy, Karnataka State Information Commissioner. The progress, he said, has been “almost negligible”.

“They (departments) do not even have a record room to keep  documents,” he said.

“They were supposed to do it within six months of the Act coming into force. But it’s been five years and they are yet to do it.’’

Another stipulation, often ignored, is that every public authority has to publish sixteen categories of information ranging from particulars of the organisation, powers and duties of its officers, employees, categories of documents that are held by it.

Thippedwamy said it is not sufficient to publish the information once, the public authority is obliged to update it every year.

“Since we live in the age of Internet, the information should be updated is updated on the website.”

RTI activist and coordinator of RTI study centre, Veeresh, said due to the non-implementation of section 4(1) of the Act, the information is denied. When challenged in the Commission, the case gets delayed due to large number of cases pending, he added.

 ‘’There are 10,000 cases pending before the commission, and it takes five months before the case comes up for hearing,” he said.

imran@expressbuzz.com