The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Compliance level good: Mohandas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 19, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Compliance level good: Mohandas

Roy Mathew

He says hardly any official was observing time limit

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State Chief Information Commissioner Palat Mohandas has said that the compliance of Commission's orders by State Government officials was quite good. There was no resistance as such to the disclosure of information.

In an interview with The Hindu , the Commissioner said that hardly any Government official, however, was observing the time limit of 30 days for providing the information requested by the public. He said that the Commission had received about 1,800 communications from members of the public till June 15. However, complaints and appeals in the proper format came to only 148. Of these, 69 had been disposed of. Mr. Mohandas said that the Commission has not imposed any punishment on any official so far. However, notices have been sent to two officials asking why punitive provisions should not be imposed against them.

He said that public authorities would be required to provide information free of charge if the 30-day limit was not met. This might invite large losses to Government and audit objections. He had written to the Chief Secretary in this regard.

There was urgent need for imparting training to officials on servicing requests under the Right to Information Act. The Commissioner said that there was no conflict in the orders issued by the High Court and the Commission on release of the Marad Inquiry Commission Report.

The same party had filed both the petitions. The High Court had ordered that the complaint should wait as the Government had promised to place the Action Taken Report before the Assembly within six months.

However, the Report (excluding the Action Taken Report) had become a public document when the Cabinet accepted the report and a Government order was issued accordingly. The Commission was issuing directive to the Principal Secretary (Home) to release the report.

Mr. Mohandas said that in view of the enforcement of Right to Information Act, some consequential change would be required in other Acts such as the Official Secrets Act.

"The provision for oath of secrecy by Ministers militates against the provisions of the Act. It should be oath of transparency now. The oath should be reworded."

He said that a large area of Government's functioning did not require confidentiality. A demystification of governance and the information held by Government was called for.

The frequency of release of information by the Government without request should increase.

He said that the full-fledged functioning of the Commission was affected by shortage of staff. The Commission required a core staff appointed on deputation from Government departments. Others could be filled in as per requirement from time to time.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala