Tuesday, March 20, 2012

[HumJanenge] Are Odisha Information Commissioners really committed to give justice to Citizens

Are Odisha Information Commissioners really committed to give justice to Citizens

Dear friends

Recently, a RTI Applicant has sought information about no. of complaint cases and Second cases received  by the office of Commission  since 2005 and no. of cases disposed by the Information Commissioners since 2005. The response of PIO is as follows.

                                  

a.     On question of No. of cases disposed by the Commission, the PIO has requested to get  it from website of Odisha Information Commission www.orissainformationcommission.nic.in

b.     No. of  Complaints and Second Appeals received by the Commission from 2005 to Dec. 2011 is as follows.

Year

Complaint Case

Second Appeal

2005

123

10

2006

522

202

2007

1973

437

2008

1973

370

2009

2579

375

2010

3364

429

2011

5015

591

Total

15549

2414

c.      On question regarding no. of cases pending in the office of the Commission, the response of PIO is "there are  7429 Complaint cases and 1233 no. of Second Appeal cases pending for decision of the Commission till Dec.2011.

Analysis

a.     As per the above data, total number of Cases received by office of Odisha Information Commission within the period of 2005 to 2011 is 17,963 cases and number of cases pending is 8662. Then, total number of cases disposed by Odisha Commission is 9,301(say 9300 cases).

b.     Though Odisha Information Commission  assumed office on 20th Nov.2005 with appointment of  Mr. D. N. Padhi as State Chief Information Commissioner and Prof. Radhamohan as State Information Commissioner, the hearing of cases  by Information Commissioner started from  April, 2006.

c.      Out of 9300 cases disposed, around  more than 4000 cases has been disposed and closed by Information Commissioners  without hearing and simply remanding to First Appellate Authority at a stroke of pen. So, practically, the Commissioners have disposed only 5300 cases within said period.

d.     Within the period of 69 months ( April, 2006 to Dec.2011), Five Information Commissioners ( Mr. Tarun Kanti Mishra, SCIC, Mr. Jagadanand, SICand Mr. Pramod Mohanty, SIC and other two abovementioned retired Commissioner) have disposed  only 5300 cases.

e.     If  we deduct 15 months within the said period as leave, Sunday, holidays, then 54 months has been devoted  for hearing  and disposing 5300 cases. It means 98 cases has been disposed in a months.

f.       If we take  disposal of 98 cases by three Commissioners in a month, then, each Commissioner disposes only 32 cases per month which is too less in comparison with Information Commissioners  of other states and Central Information Commissioners who dispose 250 to 350 cases per month.

g.     Long delay and low disposal of cases  due to inefficiency of Information Commissioners  has made the complainant and Appellant-citizens frustrated  and hopeless in Odisha.

Any comments and feed back is welcome.

Regards

Pradip Pradhan
RTI Activist, Odisha

M-99378-43482

Date- 20.3.2012

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