Citizens protest Tamil Nadu Information Commission failure on RTI Act

Activists held a demonstration outside Memorial Hall onMonday protesting the Tamil Nadu Information Commission’s “negligentattitude” with Right to Information petitions. Presenting a memorandum of their demands to the Commission after thedemonstration, they said that the Commission should act immediately toclear backlogs and provide details of its functioning as mandated bythe RTI Act. “If the Commission, the highest appellate body in the State does notmeet the requirements of the Act for voluntary disclosures, how can weexpect others to follow the rules? We have even volunteered ourservices to collect the data and file all the details in an easilyaccessible form,” one of the activists said. Chief Information Commissioner S. Ramakrishnan responded that theCommission was a legal body and would give the demands dueconsideration. “It is not possible to accept their demand to usevolunteers as volunteers cannot be held responsible. As for the otherdemands, we have increased the number of hearings to nearly 260-270per week and we will clear the backlogs in the next couple of months,”he said. Penalties were being imposed but the Commission had to take them upcase-by-case, he said, rejecting demands for very stringent penaltynorms. As for the collection of penalty amounts, he said that theCommission had written to the Accountant General offering to give alist of the penalties imposed and the government could then verify ifthey had been collected. Mr. Ramakrishnan counselled patience as the Act was gaining awarenessamong both officials and the public and it would take time for thestated objective of transparency in public affairs to be realised.“The concerns raised by the activists are valid and this is part ofthe process of increasing the efficient implementation of the Act,” hesaid.

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