Tuesday, June 9, 2009

National RTI Awards, 2009: A sham of shameful standards

Please find the details click me that appeared in an advertisement published in the Mathrubhumi daily today.

Can we find any nominees for the first two categories? Since Best is a relative term we really cannot object to such awards. And we really do not know of any good IC or PIO. I would have thought of Shailesh Gandhi but I really do not have any data to support the view that he has lived upto his promises. In fact we really do not have any criteria for nominating any person in any of the categories. For the IC is the number of cases disposed any criteria or should it be the number of cases in which penalty has been imposed or should it be both and in that case what should be the weightage for each? In fact if you see the website of the information commissions one would be shocked that even the commissions have not complied with Sec 4 requirements of mandatory disclosure. How does one say a particular PIO is the best- by the number of applications (s)he has answered completely? In that case how does anybody get this data now from various PIOs or would it be just some whimsical nomination based on ONE response to AN application? Of course, coming to best citizens, the efforts of Arvind Kejriwal, Urvashi Sharma, Krishnaraj Rao, Bimal Khemani, Mahendra Gaur, Babubhai Vaghela, etc stand out. This is just from the activities we know through our networking.

Anyhow, I believe that this award is going to be a farce and would propagate a false picture of the RTI scenario. The information commissioners and the judiciary have ensured that the Act is already on ventilator. So the most appropriate awards should have been for the worst IC and PIO/ Public Authority. While the Central Chief Information Commissioner himself would have vied with his counterparts in the states there would have been NO such problems in the case of the public authority/ PIO. That honour has to go to the office of our Chief Justice and its PIO, for reasons we well know.

30 Jun 2009 is still some time away, I suggest that we address the above issues, and whatever activists in this area can think of, to Mr Ratan Tata and Mr Narayana Murthy besides the members of the jury.
Regards and best wishes,
Maj PM Ravindran (Retd)
Visit: National RTI Awards- 2009
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