Friday, August 31, 2012

[HumJanenge] Eye-wash Exercise of Mr. Jagadanand, Odisha Information Commissioner

 
Odisha Information Commissioner Mr. Jagadanand's direction to Public authorities to comply with RTI Act – An  Eye-wash only

 Dear friends,

 On 26th August, 2012,  in a press release   issued  by Mr. Jagadanand Mohanty, State Information Commissioner  which has been  published  in a few local dailies ( attached ) , it  was   claimed that Mr. Jagadanand  while adjudicating a complaint case  filed by Mr. Judhisthira  Rout of Jeypore  directed  Secretary, Department  of Panchayati Raj , Govt. of Odisha  to  maintain transparency  in implementation of  all development programmes like MGNREGA, BRGF and Indira Awas Yojana and  issue  instructions  to lower level officials to  provide   information about such programmes to applicants.   Such a  direction by Mr. Jagadanand as highlighted  in mass media  is not a single instance of its kind,  but  one of many where  he   issued such direction to the public authorities  concerned and then simply forgot them, never caring as to the compliance by the public authorities to the said direction.  As penalty  is not imposed  in these cases,  the concerned public authorities  seldom  cared about  such directions or  sent  any  compliance report  to the Commission. In the process  the Commissioners  bloat about their so-called success stories, but in practice nothing  happens.

 Let me  share  a  case  of mine, which will give you a true picture  how  the cases are heard and disposed  and direction issued by Information Commissioner Mr.Jagadanand. On  23.12.08, I  had submitted an RTI Application to the PIO,  Department of Information and Public Relations, Govt. of Odisha   seeking   information  relating to arrangement/ procedure put in place by the Govt.  for proactive disclosure of information made  under section 4 (1b)  of the RTI Act, 2005.   Finding  no information, I lodged  an 1st appeal  to the First Appellate Authority  and then being aggrieved by the decision of First Appellate Authority, I made  a second appeal to the Commission in February, 2009. My  appeal  petition ( SA No- 49/2009) was heard  twice  by Mr. Jagadanand and  disposed on 29.6.10  with a direction to Secretary, I and PR  to  issue a comprehensive  guideline for  inspection  of proactively  disclosed  information under section 4 of the RTI Act.  But  astonishingly,  I got  the copy of the  decision  from Mr. Jagadanand after  around  11 months ( officially  issued  on 7.3.11). Immediately, I submitted an RTI application for seeking  a copy of compliance report if any  submitted by the I and PR dept to the above order of the Commission. When I saw the so-called compliance report, I got astonished. The Secretary, I and PR Dept  has issued a letter to all Departments  to  prepare their  respective  guidelines, but no Department  had  done anything about it  till then.  

 Finding no   Section-4 guideline  in place  in any Department in the state, I made an appeal to Mr. Jagadanand, SIC  on 26.3.12  to reopen the case  and  take action against  the authorities  responsible  for non-execution  of the order of the  Commission.  In the meantime I have sent two reminders  to Mr. Jagadanand   for hearing the case.  But Mr.Jagadanand remains unresponsive till date as ever before.   Though more than six years has elapsed  since the implementation of RTI Act started in the state,  there is no guideline in place for facilitating the public authorities in respect of  people's right to inspection of and access to proactively disclosed information under Section 4 of the Act.

 It seems, the act of issuing  directions  by the Commissioners and the so-called compliance by the Public authorities  are merely a drama played out by a clandestine understanding  between the  Commission and bureaucracy. As per this drama the Commission will just issue some directions  as a routine affair and the  bureaucracy will just submit a compliance report without doing anything. However, the dubious nexus  between the bureaucracy and the Commission is getting more and more visible, only when some concerted public actions are taken by civil society groups, such as  in the form of demonstration before  the office of Commission, filing writs/PILs in High Court  and  submitting of complaint  to Governor under section 17 of the RTI Act. But  to save their face, the Commission has started  using media  to  highlight the so-called important decisions, but little do they know that the members of public have already got a sense of the larger game-plan that lies behind such orchestrated decisions.

 Pradip Pradhan

RTI Activist, Odisha

M-99378-43482

Date-31.8.12  

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