To facilitate more smooth functioning of Information Commissioners office, Chief Information Commissioner had made a move of nominating a ‘registrar’ for the office which would work similar to that operating in the High Court or Apex Courts. The officers will be responsible for scrutiny of all the applications and appeals coming in the Information Commissioners office and only forwarding it for hearing, after getting the entire formalities completed with the help of complainants.
Interestingly, CIC had already forwarded ‘new rule book’ for the office which is now under consideration with the State Government. Once the rules will get cabinet nod, it would prove to be new milestone for all appropriate disposal of all the complaints filed under the Right to Information Act. Talking to ‘The Pioneer’ here on Wednesday afternoon, CIC, Jawed Usmani claimed that besides sending proposal for implementing a complete rule book on proper disposal of all the complaints filed under RTI, he was also finding that many time application or appeals filed in the Information Commissioner officer were either without completing proper formalities or even not before the right officer. He claimed to overcome this problem and to ensure that there is no wastage of time for the Information Commissioner, he had now made the law officer, Aftab Alam, as the Registrar of the IC office.
Usmani said that just like the Registrar office functions in High Court or Apex Court, the above officer would do it here. He said that all the complaints and appeal would be filed with the Registrar who would subsequently go through the complaint and if they found that it is not filed on proper format, or had some basic information missing, then the registrar would get it completed and only then registered it for further hearing and disposal. He said that the Registrar would also decide that to which IC’s court, the hearing should be forwarded for early disposal.
Sources said that at present that IC office is facing acute staff shortage and even the Information Commissioner here were too less in number than compared to other states. Sources confirmed that in small state like Uttrakhand, a total of five Information Commissioner were working where as in UP, just 10 ICs were appointed besides a CIC. Hence in Uttarkhand, when present pendency of complaints is just 1500, in Uttar Pradesh, the same is about 55000 at present. Sources also confirmed that even the junior operating staff is also too less.