Report
Card on the Performance of Odisha Information Commissions
( From June to December, 2018)
·
While State
Chief Information
Commissioner disposes 104 cases per month , Mrs. Sashi Prava Bindhani,
SIC Disposes only 65
cases per month. This is equal
with that of
previous Information
Commissioners like Sri Jagadanand who
destroyed RTI Act in Odisha.
·
Competency
of Sashi Prava Bindhani in matter
of disposal of cases is
questionable.
·
Highest number
of cases heard and disposed by State
Chief Information
Commissioner in comparison to performance
of all
previous Chief Information Commissioners during last 13 years.
·
While
State Chief Information Commissioner imposes penalty on 4%
( 29 cases) of total disposal of cases ( 733 cases) , Smt. Bindhani has
imposed penalty in
two cases only ( less than
1% ) of total no. of 460 cases disposed.
·
Sri
L.N.Patnaik, SIC has imposed penalty on around 2 % cases .
·
Penalty amount imposed by SCIC
is Rs. 2,76,000.00 against only
Rs. 6000.00 penalty imposed by Mrs. Bindhani.
·
Citizens
are paying Rs. 17,000.00
to each Information Commissioner per
day of hearing of the cases.
·
If rate
of disposal of cases by present
Information Commissioners like
Mrs. Sashi Prava Bindhani continues (
around 2400 cases are disposed in a
year) ,
the cases which are
filed in 2019 will be heard
after five years in 2024 and disposed
in 2025. Because , 12000 cases
are pending in the
Commission.
·
If present
performance of the Information Commissioners continues, RTI will be redundant in the
coming days. It will no way
help the
citizens. Threat to RTI is threat
to democracy and good governance.
Time
has come to think
to save RTI which is only law in
the country empowered
citizens to access information, fight out corruption and fix accountability on the
administration.
I.
Introduction
The
Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 has been proved as
most empowering tool in the hand of
the common citizens to enforce transparency
and accountability in the
administration in India in general and
Odisha in particular. It has been used
extensively by people on various issues starting from holding the government accountable for
delivery of basic rights and entitlements to questioning the highest offices of
the country, exposing corruption and
monitoring performance of the Government
and implementation of development
programme.
Under
the RTI Act, information commission in Odisha
has been set up with mandate
to protect people’s fundamental
right to information as well as RTI Act. They
have been bestowed with power to ensure
and enforce flow of information to the citizens in case of denial of
information , impose penalty on
erring PIOs for violating
the Act, to recommend
the public authorities for awarding
compensation to the
citizens for loss, if any they have
suffered due to denial of information.
Section 19(8)(b) of the RTI Act
empowers information commissions to “require the public authority to compensate
the complainant for any loss or other detriment suffered”. Further, under
section 19(8) and section 20 of the RTI Act, information commissions are given
powers to impose penalties on erring officials, while under Section 20(2),
commissions are empowered to recommend disciplinary action against a PIO for
“persistent” violation of one or more provisions of the Act.
Since
last few years,
we have been
monitoring performance of
Odisha Information
Commission in terms of the number of
appeals and complaints registered and disposed by the ICs, the number of
pending appeals and complaints, no. of days devoted for hearing
of the case, the estimated waiting time for the disposal of an appeal,
availability of annual reports , frequency of violations penalized by ICs and
transparency in the functioning of ICs.
Last time, we
have released report
Card on Functioning of Odisha
Information Commission (From August’
2017 to April’2018). Sashi Prava
Bindhani, SIC was proved as worst
performing information
commissioner in respect of all parameters
in comparison to that of other
two Information Commissioners.
https://odishasoochana.blogspot.com/2019/03/functioning-of-odisha-information.html.
This time, RTI Application was filed
to the PIO, office of Odisha Information
Commission to get information about performance
of the Commission from June to December,
2018 . On 1.3.19, the PIO has
supplied the correct information following which
report card has
been prepared. Information
uploaded in website of the Commission has also been taken into
consideration. Presently ,
Odisha Information Commission is
having Sri Sunil Kumar Mishra, State
Chief Information Commissioner, Sri L.N.Patnaik, State Information Commissioner, Smt. Sashi Prava
Bindhani, State Information
Commissioner.
The key findings about
performance of Odisha Information Commission is as follows.
1. Hearing and Disposal of
Complaint and Second Appeal cases
by Odisha Information
The primary responsibility of
the Information Commission is to hear the
complaint petition and second
appeal cases and dispose the same as
quick as possible in order to give
justice to the aggrieved
Information-seekers. The sooner the cases are disposed , the better for information
–seekers. The lingering of hearing or delayed hearing of the cases and its disposal
by the Commission makes
supply of information redundant
for the citizens. But
presently, the cases heard and disposed by the Commission are of 2015 and 2016, a 3
years old cases. The following
is the details of cases
heard and disposed by SCIC
and 2 SICs from June to December, 2018.
Disposal of
Complaint and Second Appeal cases
by Odisha Information Commission ( from June to December,2018)
|
Sri Sunil Kumar Mishra, State Chief Information Commissioner
|
||||
|
Month and Year
|
Complaint
cases heard
|
Complaint
cases disposed
|
Second Appeal cases heard
|
Second Appeal cases
disposed
|
|
June, 2018
|
29
|
03
|
178
|
74
|
|
July, 2018
|
66
|
23
|
291
|
136
|
|
August , 2018
|
67
|
16
|
302
|
135
|
|
September, 2018
|
34
|
11
|
171
|
58
|
|
October, 2018
|
51
|
18
|
216
|
63
|
|
November, 2018
|
63
|
17
|
330
|
88
|
|
December, 2018
|
60
|
27
|
220
|
64
|
|
Total
|
370
|
115
|
1708
|
618
|
|
Sri L. N. Patnaik, State Information Commissioner
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
June, 2018
|
22
|
7
|
127
|
39
|
|
July, 2018
|
40
|
9
|
250
|
70
|
|
August , 2018
|
64
|
13
|
219
|
52
|
|
September, 2018
|
28
|
3
|
172
|
48
|
|
October, 2018
|
29
|
2
|
183
|
38
|
|
November, 2018
|
44
|
6
|
187
|
45
|
|
December, 2018
|
37
|
8
|
185
|
50
|
|
Total
|
264
|
48
|
1323
|
342
|
|
Smt. Sashiprava Bindhani, State Information Commissioner
|
||||
|
June, 2018
|
18
|
6
|
135
|
61
|
|
July, 2018
|
25
|
8
|
285
|
70
|
|
August , 2018
|
55
|
57
|
299
|
49
|
|
September, 2018
|
21
|
05
|
255
|
40
|
|
October, 2018
|
17
|
02
|
99
|
40
|
|
November, 2018
|
28
|
10
|
221
|
35
|
|
December, 2018
|
20
|
06
|
206
|
71
|
|
Total
|
184
|
94
|
1500
|
366
|
·
Within period of
7 months , the State Chief Information Commissioner ( SCIC) has
heard 2078 cases ( both complaint
and Second Appeal) and disposed 733
cases. In an average , the SCIC
hears around 300 cases per month and disposes 104 cases .
·
Similarly, Sri L.N.Patnaik , SIC has heard total no. of 1587 cases and disposed 390 cases. In an average, he has heard 226 cases
per month and disposes 55 cases per month.
·
Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani, SIC has
heard 1684 cases and disposed 460 cases within 7
month. In an average, She hears 240
cases per month ( 15 cases per
day) and disposes 65 cases per month.
2.
No. of days devoted
for hearing of the
cases by Odisha Information Commission
|
Month,
2018
|
Sri
Sunil Mishra, SCIC
|
Sri
L.N.Patnaik, SIC
|
Mrs.
Sashiprava Bindhani, SIC
|
|
January
|
18
|
16
|
16
|
|
February
|
17
|
16
|
16
|
|
March
|
11
|
14
|
12
|
|
April
|
19
|
17
|
20
|
|
May
|
20
|
22
|
19
|
|
June
|
11
|
10
|
10
|
|
July
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
|
August
|
20
|
20
|
18
|
|
September
|
10
|
14
|
17
|
|
October
|
13
|
12
|
09
|
|
November
|
18
|
14
|
15
|
|
December
|
13
|
11
|
12
|
|
|
189
|
186
|
185
|
·
In an average , each Information Commissioner is
devoting only 15 days for hearing
of the cases. Monthly salary
and allowances of each Information Commissioner is Rs.
2.5 lakh per month. It means they
are paid Rs. 17,000 per day of
hearing of the case. Rest of the days
in a month are holiday {Saturday (
case is not heard ) Sunday , casual leave , Govt. holiday etc. ) .
3. Penalty
As per
section 20 (1) of the RTI Act,
the Information Commission is empowered to
impose penalty on erring PIO
for denial of
information or providing
false, misleading and incomplete
information etc. Imposition of penalty on erring PIOs is
prerequisite for better implementation
of RTI Act in the state and to
enforce accountability on Govt. officials. If
penalty is not imposed,
the PIO will not care RTI Act
and mindlessly respond RTI Act
which will ultimately damage RTI
Act in long run. As per the
information provided by the
office of Commission, the
performance of Information Commissioners in respect
of imposition of penalty
is as follows.
|
Name of the Information Commission
|
No. of cases in which
penalty imposed
|
Total amount collected
|
|
Sri Sunil Kumar
Mishra, SCIC
|
29
|
2,76,000.00
|
|
Sri L.N.Patnaik, SIC
|
7
|
1,75,002.00
|
|
Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani,
SIC
|
2
|
6,000.00
|
·
Out of
733 cases disposed by State
Chief Information Commissioner, penalty
has been imposed on 29
cases (
4%).
·
Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani, SIC imposes penalty on
two cases only against 460 cases disposed ( 0.45%).
·
Sri L.N.Patnaik, SIC has imposed
penalty on 7 cases
against 390 cases disposed ( 1.79%)
·
All the 3
Information Commissioners have not recommended
disciplinary proceedings against
any erring PIOs as required under
section 20(2) of the RTI Act.
4.
Pendency
As per the
information provided by
office of Odisha Information Commission, Total no. of 11,762 cases ( Both SA
and Complaint case)
is pending in the Commission.
If the present
performance of the Information Commissioners in respect
of disposal of cases are taken into
consideration, cases which are filed
today ( 2019) will be herd in 2024.
Prepared by
Pradip Pradhan, RTI Activist
State Convener, Odisha
soochana Adhikar Abhijan
M-9937843482
Date-29.3.19
