Bright days ahead for Goa state information commission
One and half years after the Right to information Act(RTI Act) has come into force,& one year after the state commission is constituted, finally bright days are ahead for the commission. The commission, last week has received positive indications that the govt of goa is willing to take action to provide the essential requirements of adequate office space, minimum staff and minimum funds.
Office space
After functioning from my residence for 2 months of April and May, 2006, the commission was provided temporary shelter of 79 sq mtrs spanning 2 rooms. The office does not have sufficient place for the citizens, advocates , Govt officers, besides office staff do not have sufficient place to even move around, not to speak of comfortable seating. It is a pity to look at them hanging around in the verandah of the Shrama shakti Bhavan in the mornings at the time of court hearings. As far back as 17-04-06, I have submitted a requirement of 300 sq mts, which is now said to be under active consideration of the govt.
Staff:
Finally, a secretary is appointed for the commission on part time basis since December. After functioning with one under secretary and one peon, it is a welcome relief for the commission to receive 8 more employees from mid December. But, the problem of seating arrangements has further worsened. Officials are playing musical chairs, waiting for some body to vacate a chair.
It is a different matter that all of them were recruited by the Info dept and the Commission does not have any say in the appointment of any of its staff and they were recruited well before the framing of staff recruitment rules in November. Still, there are no personal staff allotted to the Chief commissioner and the info commissioner,
though the RTI Act gives them the status of a supreme court judge and the state chief secretary.
Funds:
The Govt gave Rs 8 lakhs for the commission initially in May and latter voted 24 lakhs in the budget passed on 31st July. However, the money was placed at the disposal of the commission, on 13th Dec. Prior to that, the info director was spending the money on our behalf. We had to go with our requests with appropriate expression. Not that we can spend the money now on our own. The govt has given the powers to “draw and disburse” only on the 16th Jan.07.
Autonomy:
So, it is the same Dir who appoints our staff, who draws and disburses our salary(read bread) and gives us our stationery. Did you say that the Info Comm is autonomous within the meaning of Sn 15(4) of the RTI Act.? The govt perhaps thinks that this is the autonomy.
There is, however, bright light at the end of the tunnel. The length of the tunnel is long and inside the tunnel it is dark. Spring is not far in the coming.
Bye for now
(A Venkataratnam)
