Thursday, November 09, 2006

Wake up call for all Government officers in GOA

PENALTIES IMPOSED BY THE GOA STATE INFORMATION COMMISSION


The Goa State information commission imposed penalties on a number of officers of Goa government for non-complaince of the RTI Act. The details are as under:




1. Police department imposed compensation of Rs 1000 to be paid to a complainant.
(Case Appeal 9/2006/Police)

2. Mr. S.N. Kotwale, Cief Officer, Mapuca Muncipal Council is imposed a penalty of Rs 250 per day from 16-10-06 till the information is given to the complainant. It could be more than Rs 3500. Compensation of 2000 payable by the muncipal council.

(Case Comp 10A/MMC)

3. Penalty of Rs 2500 imposed on Mr. Shetye Asst Registrar of coop societies, Panaji

(Case Comp 12A/Coop)

4. Penalty of Rs 2500 imposed on Mr Afonso, Asst Director of Transport, Margao.&
compensation of Rs 1000 by the dept.
(Case Comp31/ADT(S))

5. Compensation of Rs 1000 payable by Mr Menin Peres, Director of Information &Publicity. Disciplinary Action is recommended)


In Progress

1.SCN for penalty against Nirmala Institute OF EDUCATON stayed by the High Court.
(Case Appl 5/ NIE)

2.SCN against Mr. Anil Parulekar, SSW, PWD issued for Penalty.

3.SCN against Mr Bykod. Town Planner, Margao issued for penalty.

4.SCN against C.O. Bcholim mucipal council issued.


All cases are on the web site egov.goa.nic.in/rtipublic/sic.aspx



(A Venkataratnam)

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Convention at Delhi on RTI

Last time, I published the figures of disposals of cases by the Goa commission before I started for Delhi.



The proceedings at delhi are well documented. Mainly, the Cic was criticised for high pendency and not imposing penalty on all the PIOs where there was delay in furnishing the information. Critics tend to overlook many things outside the control of the cic. For instance, the responsibilities entrusted to the public authorities, the appropriate Govt, are beyond the control of any commission whether at center or GOA. In spite of the clear provisions in the law, no staff, no funds are given making the commission ineffective. The PIOs have to be given due opportunity and then only the penalty can be imposed. In Goa, we have disposed off 51 cases out of 75 filed so far even with bare minimum staff. 46 of them are put on the web. 5 more are yet to be uploaded.

The main problem is lack of training for the PIOs and awareness among the public. I have brought this to the notice of the Hon Chief minister, Goa. Let us hope for the best.

The Goa commission has initiated action against 7 PIOs for penalty, out of which one is before the High Court, one is dropped and others are under hearing. The Bicholim Muncipal council, the police dept, Transport dept are directed to compensate the complainants Rs 1000 each.The penalty notice has to be answered by one RTO, one S.E., 2 chief officers of muncipal council.


We hope that officials will be more prompt in the days to come while replying to the citizens.



(A Venkataratnam)

Thursday, October 12, 2006

What ails the beauracracy

-What is ailing the beauracracy?

Today is the anniversary of the passing of the Right to information Act by Government of India. The act is hailed as the tool to ensure transperancy, accountability in the administration and a means to access information. But, in practice, is this happening? Here is a review and self assessment of the working of the Goa state information Commission. We would like the citizens to do similar exercise in respect of the other agencies like the Government, the public authorities, local authorities.



Review of the work done by the Goa State Information Commission.
(11th October, 2006)

Today, one year is completed after the Right to Information Act, 2005 has come into force. It is, therefore, proper to review the implementation of the RTI Act in Goa. The Goa State Information Commission was constituted on 2/3/2006, and was provided an office with a skeleton staff of one undere secretary and 4 trainees from 8/6/2006. Since then, the Commission has received and disposed off the complaints and second appeals under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (Central Act 22 of 2005) as follows: -

Upto June 2006
July
Aug
Sep
Oct
Total

Complaints






Filed 12
17
01
06
-
36

Disposed 10
11
-
-
-
21

Bal 02
6
01
06
-
15

Appeals






Filed 09
11
06
05
01
32

Disposed 07
6
04
-
-
17

Bal 02
5
02
05
01
15

Total






Filed 21
28
07
11
01
68

Disposed 17
17
04
-
-
38

Bal 04
11
03
11
01
30





From the table, it can be seen that only 4 cases are more than 3 months old. The commission could have reduced this delay if proper staff and funds are provided to it. Even if the existing circumstances continue, we re-dedicate ourselves to reduce delay.


2. Show cause notice issued for penalty: -

Of all the cases brought before the Commission, the Commission has formed an opinion of prime facie delay/malafide denial of information in _4___ cases for which show cases notices were issued in imposing the penalty. Of thes e one case is dropped by the Commission and one is pending as the party has approach the High Court. So the remaining 2 cases are under disposal.

3. Procedure adopted by the Commission: -

In all the cases, both the complainants/appellants and the Public Authorities are given adequate opportunities and only after hearing, orders are passed. All the cases are heard and decided by the bench consisting of CIC and SIC. No cases are heard or disposed off either by a single member or by the officials of the Commission. All the cases are disposed off in favour of citizens. Only when the information was supplied by the PIO’s during the course of the appeal or when the first appeal provision is not exhausted did the Commission reject the appeal/ complaint. Almost all the orders of the Commission are obeyed by the Public Authorities except in one case, which is before the High Court.

4. The difficulties in the implementation of the RTI Act: -

This is not to say that the RTI Act is being implemented very effectively in Goa. The low filing of second appeals before the Commission may not be entirely because the information is being supplied at all levels by the Public Authorities but because of the recourse taken under the Act by few people. But, by and large the Commission is of the opinion that most of the Government Departments have fallen in line with the new norms of disclosure of information rather than holding it back. Nevertheless, the training to the officials and publicity of the benefits of the Act has to be given by the Government. In fact, it is mandated to do so under Section 26 of the Act. However, the State Government is yet to initiate the training programme and the publicity campaign.
The Chief Secretary of the State in an interaction meeting called by the Goa Chapter of Indian Institute of Public Administration 2 months ago assured the delegates as fallows:
(i) Training will be given to all govt functionaries in matters of implementing the provisions of the Act;
(ii) All public authorities will appoint PIOs/ FAAs(First appellate authorities soon;
(iii) Publicity dept would undertake awareness campaign for the public;
(iv) The Act and rules will be published in local language and be made available for nominal prices.
(v) Funds will be placed at the disposal of state information commission soon as the budget provision was made only in July 06.
(vi) None of these assurances were fulfilled. Even the commission was forced to issue 2 orders regarding the appointment and functioning of the PIOs in Amar Naik Vs Director of Information which are available on the web site of the commission.
(vii) The training of officials is more important in the States where the RTI Act was existing prior to the enactment of the Central Act. In Goa, for instance, which is one of the first few States, which enacted RTI Act, the officials as well as members of the public are still under the influence of old State Act. Under the Goa Act of 1997, not only the access to the information is costly being Rs.100/- for each application, the locus standi and the public purpose has to be proved by the applicant. Even though, these requirements are done away with under the Central Act, the State officials have to unlearn the State provisions before they learn the provisions of the Central Act. Similarly, the State Government is mandated under Section 16 of Act to provide adequate staff and funds to the State Commission for its effective functioning. In case of Goa, even 7 months after its constitution, only 4 officials were appointed and no funds were placed to its disposal. The State Government, therefore, have to consider the State Commission’s not as an unnecessary and inconvenient appendage thrust on them but as a partner in the implementation of the Act to
…2/-
- 2 -

achieve its objectives. Even for the salary of the Chief Information Commissioner who is of the rank of a Supreme Court Judge, and the day to day expenditure, the Commission has to knock at the doors of the Directorate of Information thus undermining the independence of the Commission. Inspite of these difficulties the Goa Commission has taken some important and far reaching decisions as mentioned below.

5. Important decision taken by the Commission: -

Appeal No.
Details of the case
Decisions
1
Shri Vijaykumar Bhale
Vs.
PIO, Directorate of Food & Drugs, Panaji.

An accused in a criminal case is cannot be denied information on the ground that though he will get it at the time of hearing of the case against him, as long as there are no grounds under Section 8 to deny the information.
3
Ashok Menon
Vs.
PIO, Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services, Panaji.
The service particulars of Government servants are not personal information and are not exempted from disclosure.
5 & 6
Dr. G. C. Pradhan & S. K. Pradhan
Vs.
1. Nirmala Institute of Education, Panaji &
2. Goa University.
No specific notification of appropriate Government is necessary under Section 2 (h) (d) of the Act to bring the aided colleges and the Universities established under a State legislation to be covered under the RTI Act.
7
Under Secretary (Revenue),
Secretariat, Porvorim.
Vs.
Shri V. B. Prabhu Verlekar & another.
The PIO is not an aggrieved party under RTI Act and hence cannot appeal before the Commission against FAA.
11
Pranay Kamat
Vs.
PIO, Police Department
1. PIO cannot delegate his functions to APIO.
2. Cost of Appeal Petition cannot be awarded, as there is no provision.
13
Joao C. Pereira
Vs.
Police Department (H.Q.),
Panaji.

1. APIO cannot reject the request for information.
2. Directions issued to the Public Authority (DGP) to circulate the duties of the APIOs.
3. FAA has to hear the appellant and pass a speaking order.
14
C. S. Barreto
Vs.
Mamlatdar of Margao.
1. Merely because compiling of information is difficult, information cannot be denied.
2. Non-payment application fee of Rs.10/- is remediable defect and application cannot be rejected on this ground.
23
Sushant Naik
Vs.
PIO, Directorate of Mines, Panaji.
1. Only the documents mentioned in Section 7 (5) can be supplied free of cost after 30 days, if the PIO did not do so in time. Other documents have to be paid for.
2. The information cannot be denied on the plea that the citizen did not meet the PIO on the appointed day.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Goa information commission

So far, the Goa Information commission has disposed off 29 cases , both complaints and appeals included all of which are on the web site http://egov.goa.nic.in/sic.aspx.

The important thing to be noted is that all orders of the commission are complied with, including the latest one by the police dept of goa. It has issued instructions to its staff that the APIOs have no jurisdiction to refuse information. Only one public authority has gone to the high court, which has not yet admitted.

The Goa government has not yet placed funds at the disposal of the commission. Last time , I raised this point in the interaction meeting organised by the Goa chapter of institute of public administration, the chief secretary of goa has expressed his rightful indignation that such matters will take time. Well, 11 months have passed by after the RTI Act has come into force and 6 months passed by after the state commission is constituted. It is for the readers to come to a conclusion whether sufficient time was available for the government to make this order of placing funds for the functioning mof the goa commission.


(A Venkataratnam)

Monday, September 11, 2006

Implementation of RTI Act in Goa

Implementation of RTI Act in GOA

Since I last wrote about the seminars organized by the Law colleges in Goa on the RTI Act implementation, I notice that some news papers in Goa also took up the publicity of the activities under RTI in Goa. For instance, the Herald news paper commented editorially, about the slow progress in the suo motto publication of the 17 point manuals by the Govt depts. and the non-appointment of Public Information Officers (PIOs) and the appellate authorities by them. Though it is mandated that they should do so within 120 days of the implementation of the Act, and more than 300 days have passed by , many of them did not comply. Even the few, who did so, after constant breathing down their neck, made so many mistakes that we had to pass another directing the revision of the list and personal monitoring by the chief secretary of the state. Hopefully, things might improve in course of the next month. The State info commission also pointed out the need to bring out the info in a booklet form and price it reasonably low, if necessary by subsidizing its cost so that citizens can make use of it.

The Govt is also mandated to impart training to its own officials to effectively implement the RTI Act, and publish the Act and rules in local language and give wide publicity. The review of the implementation of RTI is expected to be taken up in Oct at a national covention where the representatives of Central and state commissions, the social activists, & Govt officials are expected to take part.
DOCUMENTS TO BE SUPPLIED FREE BY THE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES AFTER 30 DAYS


There was an interesting case before the Goa Info Commission where the citizen complained against the mining dept that he was not given the documents asked by him within the statutory period of 30 days and that he is entitiled for free supply of info under Sn 7(6) of the RTI Act. The commission held that this provision is applicable only to the documents mentioned in Sn 7(5) of the Act. That is, only the printed papers or the electronic data. However, the initial application fee of Rs 10 is payable in all cases including the applications for inspection of documents though it is free for the first half hour. It was also held that the citizen cannot be sent away without giving the docs on the day fixed for giving them only on the plea that he did not meet the PIO.


Information Commission is not the forum for deciding whether the certificates produced by an employee are genuine or not.


In another case, a complaint was filed before the GSIC that an employee manipulated his date of birth and action has to be taken against him and the dept for furnishing false info to the citizen. It was held that such cases to dermine whether there was forgery or fraud have to be decided by another forum and not the Info commission. The dept has furnished correctly whatever info was available with them.

The employee also cannot be called a III party under the RTI Act.

For full details refer to the web site http://egov.goa.nic.in/rtipublic/sic.aspx

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

APIO cannot refuse a request for information

The Goa RTI commission has decided 2 cases, one against the police dept and another objecting to the payment of fee for inspection of documents. Full details are at the site http://egov.goa.nic/rtipublic/sic.aspx.


Briefly, the police department in goa has adopted a system of hierarchy of APIO/PIO/AA. If somebody approaches PIO, he is directed to first go to the APIO, though both the APIO and PIO are in the same building. The APIO refuses the request without authority. If an appeal is filed that is disposed off as a routine correspondence and not after hearing the appellant and not passing a reasoned order. Enquiry into a complaint against a superintendent of police is conducted by another superintendent of police. On a RTI Application, the information is refused by the same SP against whom the complaint is filed. It is a curious situation. Certain directions are given to the Director General Of Police. Let us hope for the best.