[HumJanenge] Are Odisha Information Commissioners really committed to give justice to Citizens

Are Odisha Information Commissioners really committed to give justice to Citizens

Dear friends

Recently, a RTI Applicant has sought information about no. of complaint cases and Second cases received  by the office of Commission  since 2005 and no. of cases disposed by the Information Commissioners since 2005. The response of PIO is as follows.

                                  

a.     On question of No. of cases disposed by the Commission, the PIO has requested to get  it from website of Odisha Information Commission www.orissainformationcommission.nic.in

b.     No. of  Complaints and Second Appeals received by the Commission from 2005 to Dec. 2011 is as follows.

Year	Complaint Case	Second Appeal
2005	123	10
2006	522	202
2007	1973	437
2008	1973	370
2009	2579	375
2010	3364	429
2011	5015	591
Total	15549	2414

c.      On question regarding no. of cases pending in the office of the Commission, the response of PIO is "there are  7429 Complaint cases and 1233 no. of Second Appeal cases pending for decision of the Commission till Dec.2011.

Analysis

a.     As per the above data, total number of Cases received by office of Odisha Information Commission within the period of 2005 to 2011 is 17,963 cases and number of cases pending is 8662. Then, total number of cases disposed by Odisha Commission is 9,301(say 9300 cases).

b.     Though Odisha Information Commission  assumed office on 20^th Nov.2005 with appointment of  Mr. D. N. Padhi as State Chief Information Commissioner and Prof. Radhamohan as State Information Commissioner, the hearing of cases  by Information Commissioner started from  April, 2006.

c.      Out of 9300 cases disposed, around  more than 4000 cases has been disposed and closed by Information Commissioners  without hearing and simply remanding to First Appellate Authority at a stroke of pen. So, practically, the Commissioners have disposed only 5300 cases within said period.

d.     Within the period of 69 months ( April, 2006 to Dec.2011), Five Information Commissioners ( Mr. Tarun Kanti Mishra, SCIC, Mr. Jagadanand, SICand Mr. Pramod Mohanty, SIC and other two abovementioned retired Commissioner) have disposed  only 5300 cases.

e.     If  we deduct 15 months within the said period as leave, Sunday, holidays, then 54 months has been devoted  for hearing  and disposing 5300 cases. It means 98 cases has been disposed in a months.

f.       If we take  disposal of 98 cases by three Commissioners in a month, then, each Commissioner disposes only 32 cases per month which is too less in comparison with Information Commissioners  of other states and Central Information Commissioners who dispose 250 to 350 cases per month.

g.     Long delay and low disposal of cases  due to inefficiency of Information Commissioners  has made the complainant and Appellant-citizens frustrated  and hopeless in Odisha.

Any comments and feed back is welcome.

Regards

Pradip Pradhan

RTI Activist, Odisha

M-99378-43482

Date- 20.3.2012