The Odisha Sochana Adhikar Abhijan on Sunday slammed the Odisha Information Commissioners for allegedly miserably failing to give justice to citizens. Due to lack of knowledge, expertise and experience and sheer inefficiency, they have failed in their task, said RTI activist Pradip Pradhan of the Abhijan at a Press meet here.
Abhijan members criticised Information Commissioner Sashi Prava Bindhani for devoting only 10 days for hearing of cases in a month. The case disposal rate is very dismal leading to frustration among information seekers, they added.
Pradhan informed that State Information Commissioner lN Patnaik is also devoting about 15 days for hearing in a month.
He said the contents of the Information Commissioners’ decisions also suffer from grammatical errors carrying no meaning at all. Each Information Commissioner disposes of only two cases per month, he added.
Both the Information Commissioners draw salary of Rs 2 lakh per month which is a great loss to the State exchequer, Pradhan said.
The members demanded that the Government remove the Information Commissioners.
Pointing out that the Government has on August 11 decided to keep the State Vigilance wing outside the purview of the Right to Information Act, Pradhan strongly criticised the decision saying many irregularities would not come to the fore now. It would give protection to corrupt officers, he said. “We will move the judiciary and challenge the decision,” he added.
“Protesting against these acts of the State Government and the Information Commissioners, we will stage a mass dharna and submit a memorandum to the Governor on August 19,” said Pradhan, adding that the activists would also organise a consultation with political parties in near future.
Abhijan members Biswajit Mohanty, Bhabani Shankar Nanda, Sanjukta Panigrahi, Shrikanta Paika and lawyer Sudhir Mohanty were present at the meet.