To give more teeth to the Information Commission so that the people could get better benefit of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, former chief secretary, Jawed Usmani, who took charge of chief information commissioner (CIC) just on Tuesday, claimed that he will ensure implementation of full rules and regulations besides updating the Commission’s website and a proper training programme for the Public Information Officer (PIO).
``Only two rules, to prescribe fees for filing of RTI and to whom an appeal could be made, were so far formulated which is too less to forward the benefit of the RTI Act. I would ensure that a comprehensive rules and regulations should be formed to meet every problem for successful implementation of RTI Act”, claimed Usmani adding that the government would be sent those rules and regulation for early implementation. Usmani, made above claims while talking to media persons soon after he held discussion on the present scenario with other Information Commissioners here on Wednesday afternoon.
Usmani said that the PIO were also not having proper knowledge that how they would dispose of notices, how to register a case, how to give receipt to the complainant, what rules are available for making a notice to the first appealing officer etc. He said that regular training camps for the above purpose would be organised at zonal as well as district level and he would personally visit to this training programmes to solve the problems of the PIO as they were the back-bone for successful implementation of RTI Act.
Usmani further said that he would also ensure that all the fines on the erring officers should be realised in time and that he will soon sent a circular in this regard to all the officers concerned. He claimed that the website of the Information Commission has been also not updated so he would look into it and get the side updated keeping in mind that the complainant should not only get latest information about his RTI Notice but the decision taken on it should be also put of the site. He claimed that this will facilitate the complainant to known about the progress of his complaint from his home also.
Usmani also called on other information commissioners that they should keep in touch with the activities of Commissions in other States and Central Information Commission so that any good measures taken by them could be also incorporated here to give more teeth to the Commission. Besides, he said that outstanding work of the Commission should be also shared with the media so that public could know about their rights and feel more comfortable to come up with their problems. He also said that he would take up the matter with the Government to get the Commission office shifted in it’s new premises at Gomatinagar, at earliest.