JOIN USJustice Hegde was addressing a gathering at a discussion ‘RTI- where do we stand?’ on Saturday. The programme was organised by the Common Wealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) at Shikshakara Sadana.
The Lokayukta said RTI was considered an effective tool to counter corruption but there are reports that officials refuse to give the information required.
Justice Hegde said the cases are piling up with the government denying him power to take the cases to the court. He said, 18,250 cases of corruption are yet to reach the court of law.
The Lokayukta informed the audience that in the recent months, 350 cases of corruption were exposed by the Lokayukta police but ironically none of these cases go for trial and many corrupt officials got promotion in place of their dismissal from the department.
The Lokayukta has just nine judges hearing cases as opposed to the necessary 16.“The message going to the public is that no one can harm corrupt people,” he said.
Chief information commissioner of Karnataka KK Mishra said the central government constituted two committees- RAGA and NCPI, to submit a detailed report on the RTI. The committees recommended that each department should have a nodal officer designated for RTI.
It suggested that the public information officers should give information in time and they be given proper training on the RTI.