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It is hard to get information under RTI Act: study

Aarti Dhar

Respondents say no directories of Public Information Officers available
60 p.c. of respondents say they were harassed or denied information

NEW DELHI: People across the country find it difficult to get information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 from government departments and the problem is aggravated by dominance of bureaucracy in the State Information Commissions (SICs), says a survey by Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA).

Data collected from 20 Information Commissions by PRIA from April to October 2007 suggests that the SICs are dominated by retired Indian Administrative Service officers.

27 IAS retired officers

Nearly 31 Information Commissioners are from administration and governance and 27 retired IAS officers.

While 15 SICs are headed by retired IAS officers, one (Assam) is headed by a retired IPS officer.

Only four SICs – Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh – have non-IAS Chief Information Commissioners.

In some States, the Information Commissioners remain sympathetic to the Public Information Officers and are willing to give them ample opportunities to correct their mistakes even when there is mala fide denial of information, says the report.

“The manner and disposal of appeals and complaints, recommendations for penalty and disciplinary action against public information officials show that the SICs have not sent the right signals to officials for making the RTI Act work according to its letter and spirit,” the report observes.

The survey, conducted in eight States, shows that 75 per cent of the respondents found that no directories of Public Information Officers were available in their districts and 50 per cent had not even seen notice boards of the PIOs in their offices.

Even if they managed to trace the PIO, he refused to take the application.

The attitude of the PIOs was extremely apathetic and hostile, the respondents said. Sixty per cent of them said they were either harassed or denied information.

Educated sections

The study points out that a large number of applicants are from the educated sections of society.

It concludes that accessibility to information under the Act is restricted to the middle class, and large sections of poor and marginalised lack energy, courage and time to struggle for getting information from government institutions.

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