Rights activists threaten to gherao Assembly
Coming down heavily on the Odisha Information Commission for its alleged anti-people and pro-Government activities, the Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhijan (OSAA) on Wednesday threatened to gherao the Assembly if the Commission failed to streamline line its style of functioning at the earliest.
OSAA convenor Pradip Pradhan told reporters here that under Section 7 (5) of the RTI Act, a BPl card holder is eligible to get information free of cost and the High Court has also passed a similar judgment on this, but the State Information Commission is not following it.
“While there is provision U/s 4(1) (b) of the Act for many offices like police stations and blocks to disclose information suo motto, in Odisha it is not happening. Interestingly, taking no initiatives to ensure disclosure of the information the commission is sitting idle,” alleged Pradhan.
Giving instances of the “anti-people activities” of the commission, rights activist Jayanta Kumar Das said that while in other States the Information Commissions are giving judgements in their concerned State languages, in Odisha the commission is giving judgements in English intentionally. “In our State, the RTI application form is very complicated to fill up while with ill intention the proof of citizenship is sought from the applicants, which is not legal,” said Das.
Slamming the Commission Members for their “inefficiency” in delivering justice, Das said, “While the Chief Information Commissioner and Member are getting a sum of `2 lakh per month, they are hearing ten cases per day on an average while in other States a commission is holding hearing on 30 cases in a day.”He also criticised the Government for not maintaining transparency in appointing the Commission Member.
Among others, rights activists Sanjay Panda and Biswajit Mohanty were present at the Press meet.