RTI work comes to a standstill as Jannat holidays

HYDERABAD: The RTI story in Andhra Pradesh is on its death bed. Here's why: A total of 6,200 applications at the state information commission are awaiting hearings and disposal.
An additional 400 applications are added to this number each month. The disposal rate of RTI application has been an abysmal 80 a month. But chief information commissioner Jannat Hussain isn't really feeling the burden of these pending files.For, the man at the helm is on a month-long vacation.
Hussain is the only authority to dispose applications with no information commissioner appointed so far. And this is not the first vacation he has taken. In April, the commission could dispose only 78 cases as the CIC was on a two weeks leave then. "Being at such a crucial post of CIC, he should have reconsidered his decision of taking this vacation, as he had already taken a two weeks leave. If he is not responsible, who else would be," said Rakesh Reddy Dubbudu, an RTI activist.
Going by the current pace of work at the commission, it will take five years for the pending applications to be cleared. The commission is on vacation from May 2 to June 3.
What has got the goat of activists and RTI applicants is the huge loss to the exchequer on account of one person's disinterest in his job. Apart from the annual budget of Rs 2.45 crore earmarked for the commission (2010-11), the CIC's monthly remuneration adds up to Rs 1.3 lakh which includes HRA, DA and bill reimbursements. He is also entitled to LTA, education allowance for children, a car and government accomodation. Activists question the expenditure since the commission is practically defunct. "It was bad even during C D Arha's time but at least then there were information commissioners and at least 50 per cent of the cases were being disposed,'' said sources at the commission.
Hussain's vacation is also being questioned since a four-week break is permissible only if there is at least one information commissioner holding fort to dispose emergency applications. "The CIC has violated the rules of the commission by taking this leave. There is no one in the office to look into the cases and the commission is unofficially closed," said Umesh Varma, an RTI activist.
As per the rulebook, there should be one CIC and up to 10 information commissioners for the state commission to function. "From the last six months the commission has been running extremely slow with one CIC and now even that commissioner is on leave," said Rama Krishna Raju, an RTI activist.
Piling up are not just applications but even services. The lackadaisical attitude of Hussain has ensured that the recently introduced SMS service for applicants to get the status of their RTI queries has turned out to be a complete failure.
"The notice of the hearing does not even reach the applicant in time so there are cases where the applicant fails to turn up at the hearing. The commission has the provision to send messages to applicants on the hearing schedule or if the appeal is rejected, but it does not use the service for lack of staff," Dubbudu added.
Sources claim that inefficiency of the staff has been mounting with time and staff including the CIC are not taking their work seriously. "My RTI application was disposed 3 months ago, but till date no orders have been passed to the respective department," said CJ Karira an RTI activist.The activists allege that the government is responsible for the APIC becoming toothless. "A number of appeals have been made for the appointment of new information commissioners but the state government has been cold-shouldering the matter," Raju added.