Kerala - Kochi   

Jumbo State Information Commission likely soon

KOCHI: Even as the State Information Commission (SIC) is handicapped by the shortage of administrative staff and starved of funds for its routine tasks, the Government is planning to add five more members to the commission who will draw Chief Secretary-level pay and perks.

The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is learnt to have already apportioned off the five positions among its leading partners, supporting sceptics’ view that political parties would, in due course, turn the commission on its head.

The commission, at present, has three members, plus the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC).

With the addition of five more members, the SIC will be the largest among all the State Information Commissions.

Though the Right to Information (RTI) Act allows each State to appoint up to 10 information commissioners, most States have only two or three members.

Even large States, including Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, do not have the full strength and some small States have only one-man commission.

Since the RTI Act grants the rank of Chief Secretary to the information commissioner, the new members will get a fat pay check, car and chauffeur, and other paraphernalia.

“But, we even do not have chairs and tables to offer them, let alone separate office rooms,” a commission insider said.

“What we need right now is not more commissioners, but more clerks, office amenities, computers, furniture and a lot more funds to run our routine programmes,” he said.

The commission has a staff of 35, including peons, drivers and security men, who are much too small for running the day-to-day affairs. There are only six clerks.

Because of the shortage of staff, even urgent correspondence often gets delayed.

The SIC came into being in December 2005 with Palat Mohandas, a former Chief Secretary, taking over as the Chief Information Commissioner.

A few months later, the Oommen Chandy Government appointed the three present commissioners—a retired district judge, a journalist and a former director of the Electrical Inspectorate.

Until August-end, the commission—which is the second appellate authority for breaches of the citizen’s right to information—disposed of 385 appeal petitions out of the 645 it had received.

Of the 960 complaint petitions decisions were made on 510.

Thirty-eight departmental public information officers (PIOs) have so far been penalised for not complying with the provisions of the Act. Of these, more than a dozen were fined the maximum permissible fine of Rs.25,000 each.

A total fine of Rs.4.46 lakh was imposed on those who had denied information to the public.

These show that the present commissioners could themselves handle the flow of appeals and complaints and that what the commission needs are more office amenities, staff and funds.

“I do not know what the political parties find attractive about the commission,” a senior commission insider, who requested anonymity, said.

“Unlike other Government commissions and boards, there is no money to be made here and no favours to be handed out; it is just an appellate authority,” he said.

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