6 yrs on,Gujarat’s RTI record in poor shape

A cohort of voluntary organisations such as Anandi,MAGP,Nagarik Adhikar Kendra,CHRI, Paryavaran Mitra and Swati have declared they “will undertake signature and postcard campaigns on a large scale until the government strengthens the commission by giving adequate staff and appointing more commissioners.”

“As that of appointment of State Human Rights Commission,Women’s Rights Commission,Child Rights Commission and Lokayukta,the Gujarat government is not keen in appointment of CIC and more ICs in the State Information Commission,” the organisations declared.

After former CIC R N Das retired in June,the post has remained vacant. The then three-member team of commissioners has now been reduced to one,with Netra Shenoy having retired last month. Arvind Shukla is currently holding fort alone.

This shortage puts Gujarat,with 6.2 crore people,almost at the bottom of the list when ratios of ICs and populations are compared; a state with smaller population like Arunachal Pradesh (10 lakh) has 5 ICs,Karnataka (5.2 crore) and Jharkhand (2.6 crore) have seven ICs each,Punjab (2.4 crore) has 6 ICs.

ICs are appointed by a committee comprising Chief Minister Narendra Modi,revenue minister Anandiben Patel and Opposition leader Shaktisinh Gohil. In their meeting on March 11,2010, the names of eight candidates were considered – Arvind J Shukla,G C Raiger (a retired IPS officer questioned by SIT in connection with the 2002 riots case),M D Meena (also a retired IPS officer),Netra Shinoy,B H Ghodasara,Gurucharan Singh (a retired IAS officer),CJ K Jose and former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar.

Of these,Shukla and Shinoy were appointed by consensus among the committee members.

In staff strength,10 out of 44 sanctioned posts remain vacant,and most are appointed through contracts and using outside agencies.

As for pendency of cases,20,220 appeals and complaints have been received by the ICs since the RTI came into being in 2005. While 12,146 cases were disposed of,8,074 cases remain unresolved – roughly 40 per cent pendency of cases.