HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Information Commission (APIC), an institution listed under Schedule 10 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, has six of the 11 information commissioners posts remaining vacant for over a year now after almost two-and-half years of united state’s bifurcation.
In fact, the commission’s bifurcation process is yet to take off. “In 2016 we received approximately 20,000 cases, out of which close to 8,000 are still pending,” said Dr S Imtiyaz Ahmed, state information commissioner (SIC). Each of the five SICs hears 20 cases everyday with each session lasting about an hour.
With the governments of the two states being unable to reach a consensus on sharing of the assets of the institutions listed under Schedule 10 of the AP Reorganisation Act, the matter rests with the central government now.
On Friday, the 19-odd people waiting on the third floor of the APIC office for a hearing by the chief information commissioner (CIC) were all activists of Right to Information (RTI). Some of them were waiting for hearing on their second and third appeals seeking information from various state government departments.
Even a member of the AP state legislative Assembly (MLA), who had been chasing information he had sought through an RTI filed over 20 months ago, was present. “The public information officers (PIOs) working with state government departments don’t have much knowledge of the RTI Act. They simply do not know the particulars of the Act and end up rejecting RTI applications on the basis of the most simplest of reasons,” said David Joseph Abraham, a former journalist and now RTI activist.
According to Imtiaz Ahmed, the target set for March end is disposal of another 2,000 cases. “Of course, there is an additional work pressure on us. The decision to appoint new information commissioners rests with the state government and we can’t anything much to happen unless the bifurcation process is completed,” he added and the chief information commissioner was unavailable for a comment by 4 pm as he still had 10 more cases to take up in the day.
Most RTI queries will receive a standard set of response from the state government departments, say RTI activists. Some of the most common set of replies received from department PIOs say that fire destroyed the relevant files or the file is being sent to higher authorities or other departments for information or blame state’s bifurcation. In some cases, non-receipt of petition itself is cited as reason for a reply not being given.“They are supposed to send us a response within 30 days but it never happens. We will organise and form a team involving all stakeholders. We will engage in a dialogue with various PIOs to bring more clarity to those seeking information under RTI Act,” rued David.