'Appoint efficient RTI Commissioner'

KRRS, Sene point out misdeeds by RTI official

Speaking to the media persons on Monday, KRRS State Secretary M Manjunath said that the RTI Act has turned out to be a toothless tiger. The Government has introduced RTI in order to bring transparency in the system and provide an opportunity for the public to receive information about the governance. Though RTI seemed to be effective in the initial days, due to the ‘lethargic behaviour’ of the few officers and the anti-people attitude of the State RTI Commissioner, it has lost its strength, he said.

“The Commissioner has been giving judgement in favour of the government employees.

With this, the general public are losing faith on the Act,” he said. Quoting one of the instances, he said that an application was filed using RTI seeking information from the Mining Geology Department with regard to mining on the banks of river Hemavathi in the district.

When the applicant realised that the information obtained under RTI was false, six complaints were filed with the RTI Commission under Section 18 E. But to one’s surprise, the judgement given by the RTI Commissioner was in favour of the wrong doers. Though the RTI Commissioner had the right to penalise the officers for not providing the information for about a year, the Commissioner did not take any action. Instead he convinced the applicant and handed over a cheque of Rs 2,000.

He has urged the government to dismiss the Commissioner.