[HumJanenge] Neither Minister nor Orissa Information Commission care to provide information to State Legislative Assembly

Neither Minister nor Orissa Information Commission care to provide information to State Legislative Assembly

Dear friends,

On 3.8.10 Mr. Karendra Majhi,  Hon'ble MLA of Orissa Legislative Assembly in his Non-Star Question No. 3524 had asked Mr. Prafulla Samal, Minister for Information and Public Relations, Govt. of Orissa to know about  "the Act and Rules which have been followed by Govt. of Orissa to sanction huge amounts of money to Orissa Information Commission for organizing awareness programme on RTI in the state  and whether it is  the function  of Orissa Information Commission under RTI Act ?"

In absence of the requisite information, the reply given by Mr. Prafulla Samal, Honorable Minister was-  " the information has been sought from Orissa Information Commission".  Such a peculiar reply by the Minister implied that the office of the Minister had not been posted with the necessary information either by his Dept of Information and Public Relations the nodal RTI agency of the State or by Orissa Information Commission which had been sanctioned with huge funds on IEC activities every year since inception.

Being curious about the matter, I submitted an RTI Application on 18.10. 2010 to the PIO, Orissa Legislative Assembly (OLA) to know the contents of the reply given by Orissa Information Commission on the question raised by ML Mr. Karendra Majhi.  In his reply furnished within the statutory time limit, the PIO, OLA informed me that no information had been received from the office of Orissa Information Commission till then.

Then on 25.11.10, I submitted another RTI Application to the said PIO  seeking information on the following subjects-

a.       What are the norms or Rules observed to provide the information to the concerned MLAs by the Minister in the Assembly and what is the time limit fixed  for concerned Dept./Office to supply the information to the Assembly.

b.      In a situation where the Minister while responding to any question raised by the MLAs says that the requisite information is in the process of collection or the concerned office has been asked to provide the information, then what is the time limit within which these offices are to to supply the requisite information to the Office of OLA, so that the Assembly can send the said information to the concerned MLAs?

c.       If the concerned Dept. or the office fails to supply the information within the statutory time limit, what action will be taken against them?

d.      Has the office of OLA taken any steps against any Dept. or office for non-supply of information in the year 2010?

On 18.1.2011, the PIO OLA supplied the following information-

a.       As per Rule 41(a) (1) of Rules of Business of Orissa Legislative Assembly, each dept will provide answer sheet to the office of Assembly 12 hours prior to the supply of the same to the Assembly on the scheduled day. But the concerned Depts. usually provide the answer sheet just an hour before the reply is given.

b.      From the day when the Minister said in the Assembly that "Information is in the process of Collection from the  Dept.", the concerned Dept. shall supply the answer sheet to the office of Assembly within 60 days. The office of Assembly will immediately pass on the said information to  the concerned  MLA.

c.       In a case where a Dept. fails to supply the information, the Committee on Assurances for internal working will take steps against the concerned Dept for its failure in supplying answer sheet  to the Assembly.

d.      During 2010, the Committee on Assurances has not taken any steps against any Dept. on account of gross negligence  in supplying the answers to the State Assembly.   

 

It is generally seen that in many cases the Hon'ble MLAs don't pursue the pending unanswered question with the Minister to get the answers. Rather they submit the same questions seeking answer in the successive sessions of the Assembly. It is my feeling that the MLAs abandon the pursuit of pending questions because the concerned bureaucrats don't care to give answers  as required to the Ministers, like the instant case where Orissa Information Commission failed to provide the information even after being queried for the second time. .

There is another side to the story of non-supply of information about the above matter.  In fact, as per Section 26 of RTI Act, the State Govt. has been mandated to organize public awareness campaign on RTI through publication of booklets and other IEC materials and conduction of seminars and workshops and training for Officials and PRIs in the state. As the Information and Public Relations Department is the nodal Dept. for implementation of RTI Act in the State, it should have been provided with necessary funds to organize such awareness programmes in the state. But the tragedy in Orissa is that since inception Orissa Information Commission itself remained is busy in conducting the awareness programmes like publications, meetings  and training of the officers. The Officials of I and PR Dept. have been sitting idle without discharging their legal obligation in any manner for popularisation of RTI in the state. It is worth mentioning here that no other State Information Commission or Central Information Commission is found to have involved itself in RTI awareness campaign taking funds from the Government. It is only Orissa where the State Information Commission has already spent a total Rs.3,25,61,787/- during the period 2005-06 to 2009-10 alone on account of IEC (Information, Education and Communication) activities from from the state exchequer. Nobody knows what the output at ground level is. On the other hand, as the public are well aware that Orissa Information Commissioners have precariously failed in respect of the primary statutory obligtion assigned to them i.e. disposal of complaints and appeals. More than 8,000 cases are pending in the office of Commission for disposal. The way the Commission hears and disposes the cases, it will take several years to dispose of the pending cases, not to talk of the new complaint or second appeal cases to be filed in the coming four years.

Thus it should be now the look-out of all conscious RTI well-wishers to know for sure on which legal basis, the Orissa Information Commission was assigned with IEC funds from the State exchequer in blatant violation of Section 26 of RTI Act, that resulted in double jeopardy – increasing numbers of pending cases in the office of Commission on one hand, and disablement of the nodal RTI agency of the State (Dept. of I&PR) from discharging their primary obligation of conducting IEC activities on RTI on the other.     

 

Regards

Pradip Pradhan, RTI Activist, Orissa

M- 99378-43482