What RTI? 18,000 cases gathering dust in Madhya Pradesh

Govt drags feet on Jan 2013 HC orer to set up new information commission, after earlier one became defunct

The blatant disregard that the government machinery can have for the much-touted Right To Information Act is evident from the fact that as many as 18,000 complaints and appeals are pending in Madhya Pradesh since the state information commission became defunct. Government authorities have yet comply the Jabalpur High Court directives to the state in January 2013 to constitute state information commission within three weeks.

At present, the posts of Chief Information Commissioner and ten information commissioners are lying vacant for the last six months ever after retirement of chief information commission Iqbal Ahmed retired on December 31, 2012.

“MP high court asked the state government to file a reply on the issue of constitution of state information commission by 11th  of this month. This is a serious issue as many as 18,000 complaints and appeals are pending under right to information (RTI) act,” right to information activist Ajay Dubey said and demanded that the state government should constitute the commission as soon as possible.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice KK Lahoti and Justice Subhash Kekde had, on the 6th of this month, given a six-day deadline to the government to spell out an action plan to constitute the state information commission within before the court by 11th  of this month.

The state government had issued an advertisement for the posts of state information commission and chief information commission in June this year. It received more than 200 applications for the post but nothing has been done so far.

State authorities were no available for comment on the issue. According to information obtained by Dubey, many fresh graduates have also applied for the posts. As of now the state information commission is under defunct status thereby damaging the spirit of the Act.

Among all fifty districts of the state, a total of 23371 appeals have been received under RTI act. Of them 10,273 have been disposed-off, while 13099 are pending.

The tribal dominated and naxal-affected Balaghat districts have the highest number of pending appeals. It has received 2,389 appeals during January 2005 and July 31, 2013. Sadly only 212 have been resolved, while 2,177 are still hanging in balance.

The Bhopal district also tops in number of appeals received at 3,425 although 2185 have been disposed off yet 1,227 are  pending. The district of Seoni  has appeals in four digits at 1174, only 93 have been resolved while 1,081 are pending. Of the total 6426 complaints received under RTI in all districts, 4,854 has been resolved and 1,772 are yet to be resolved.