Mrs. Sashi Prava Bindhani, Odisha Information Commissioner performed badly.

Report
Card on the Performance of Odisha Information Commissions

(  From June to December, 2018)

·  
While  State 
Chief  Information
Commissioner  disposes 104 cases  per month , Mrs. Sashi Prava Bindhani,
SIC  Disposes  only 65 
cases  per month. This  is equal 
with  that  of 
previous  Information
Commissioners  like  Sri Jagadanand  who 
destroyed  RTI Act  in Odisha.

·  
Competency
of  Sashi Prava Bindhani  in matter 
of disposal of cases  is
questionable.

·  
Highest  number 
of cases  heard and disposed  by State 
Chief  Information
Commissioner  in comparison  to  performance
of  all 
previous  Chief  Information Commissioners  during last 13  years.

·  
While
State  Chief  Information Commissioner  imposes  penalty on 4% 
( 29 cases) of total disposal of cases ( 733 cases) , Smt. Bindhani  has 
imposed  penalty  in  
two cases  only ( less  than 
1% )  of   total no. of 460 cases  disposed.

·  
Sri
L.N.Patnaik, SIC  has  imposed penalty on around 2 % cases .

·  
Penalty  amount imposed  by SCIC 
is Rs. 2,76,000.00  against  only 
Rs. 6000.00 penalty  imposed  by Mrs. Bindhani.

·  
Citizens
are  paying  Rs. 17,000.00 
to  each  Information Commissioner  per 
day  of hearing of  the cases.   

·  
If  rate 
of disposal of cases  by  present 
Information Commissioners   like
Mrs. Sashi Prava Bindhani  continues (
around 2400 cases are  disposed in a
year)  , 
the  cases  which are 
filed  in 2019  will be heard 
after five years  in 2024  and disposed 
in 2025. Because , 12000 cases 
are  pending  in the 
Commission.

·  
If   present 
performance  of the  Information Commissioners  continues, RTI will be redundant  in the 
coming days. It will  no way
help  the 
citizens. Threat  to RTI  is threat 
to democracy  and good governance.

Time 
has  come  to think 
to save RTI which  is only  law  in
the  country  empowered 
citizens  to access  information, fight out corruption and  fix accountability  on the 
administration.

  

I.
Introduction

The
Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 has been proved  as 
most empowering tool in the hand of 
the common citizens  to enforce  transparency 
and accountability  in the
administration in India  in general and
Odisha in particular.  It has been used
extensively by people on various issues starting from  holding the government accountable for
delivery of basic rights and entitlements to questioning the highest offices of
the country, exposing  corruption and
monitoring  performance of the  Government 
and implementation of development 
programme.  

Under
the RTI Act, information commission in Odisha 
has been set up with mandate 
to   protect people’s fundamental
right to information as well as RTI Act. They 
have been bestowed  with power  to ensure 
and enforce  flow of  information to the  citizens in case  of denial of 
information , impose penalty  on
erring PIOs  for  violating 
the Act,  to  recommend 
the  public authorities  for awarding 
compensation  to  the 
citizens for  loss, if any  they have 
suffered  due to denial of  information.  
  Section 19(8)(b) of the RTI Act
empowers information commissions to “require the public authority to compensate
the complainant for any loss or other detriment suffered”. Further, under
section 19(8) and section 20 of the RTI Act, information commissions are given
powers to impose penalties on erring officials, while under Section 20(2),
commissions are empowered to recommend disciplinary action against a PIO for
“persistent” violation of one or more provisions of the Act.

 Since 
last  few  years, 
we  have  been 
monitoring  performance  of 
Odisha  Information
Commission   in terms of the number of
appeals and complaints registered and disposed by the ICs, the number of
pending appeals and complaints, no. of days devoted  for hearing 
of the case, the estimated waiting time for the disposal of an appeal,
availability of annual reports , frequency of violations penalized by ICs and
transparency in the functioning of ICs. 

Last  time,  we 
have  released  report 
Card  on Functioning of Odisha
Information Commission  (From August’
2017 to April’2018). Sashi  Prava
Bindhani, SIC was  proved  as worst 
performing  information
commissioner  in respect of all  parameters 
in comparison  to that  of other 
two  Information Commissioners.
https://odishasoochana.blogspot.com/2019/03/functioning-of-odisha-information.html.

This  time, RTI Application was  filed 
to the PIO, office  of Odisha  Information 
Commission  to get  information about  performance 
of the  Commission from June to December,
2018 . On 1.3.19, the  PIO has 
supplied the  correct  information following  which 
report  card  has 
been  prepared. Information
uploaded  in website  of the Commission has also been  taken into 
consideration.  Presently ,
Odisha  Information Commission  is 
having  Sri Sunil Kumar  Mishra, State 
Chief  Information Commissioner,  Sri L.N.Patnaik, State  Information Commissioner, Smt. Sashi Prava
Bindhani, State  Information
Commissioner.

    

The primary responsibility of
the Information Commission is  to hear  the 
complaint petition and  second
appeal cases and dispose  the same as
quick as  possible in order  to give 
justice  to the aggrieved
Information-seekers.  The sooner  the cases are  disposed , the better for information
–seekers. The lingering of hearing or delayed hearing  of the cases and its  disposal 
by the  Commission  makes  
supply of information   redundant
for  the citizens.  But 
presently, the  cases  heard and disposed  by the Commission are of 2015 and 2016, a 3
years old cases.  The  following 
is the  details of  cases 
heard and disposed   by  SCIC 
and  2 SICs  from June to December, 2018.

·        
Within period of 
7 months , the  State  Chief Information Commissioner ( SCIC)  has 
heard 2078 cases ( both complaint 
and Second Appeal)  and  disposed 733 
cases. In an average ,  the  SCIC 
hears around 300 cases  per  month and disposes 104  cases .

·        
Similarly, Sri L.N.Patnaik , SIC  has heard total no. of 1587 cases  and disposed 390  cases. In an average, he has heard 226 cases
per month and disposes 55 cases per  month. 

·        
Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani, SIC  has 
heard 1684  cases  and disposed 460 cases   within 7 
month. In an average, She hears 240 
cases per  month ( 15  cases per 
day)  and disposes 65 cases  per month.

·     
In an average , each  Information Commissioner  is  
devoting  only 15 days for  hearing 
of the cases.  Monthly salary
and allowances  of each  Information Commissioner  is  Rs.
2.5 lakh  per month. It means  they 
are  paid  Rs. 17,000  per  day of 
hearing of the case. Rest  of the days 
in a month are  holiday {Saturday  ( 
case  is not heard ) Sunday ,   casual leave , Govt. holiday etc.  ) .

3.      Penalty

As  per 
section 20 (1) of the  RTI Act,
the  Information Commission is empowered  to 
impose  penalty  on erring PIO 
for  denial  of 
information  or  providing 
false, misleading and incomplete 
information  etc.  Imposition of penalty on erring PIOs is
prerequisite for  better implementation
of RTI Act  in the state and to
enforce  accountability  on Govt. officials.  If 
penalty  is not  imposed, 
the PIO  will not  care RTI Act 
and mindlessly respond RTI Act 
which will ultimately  damage RTI
Act  in long run. As per  the 
information  provided   by the 
office of Commission,  the
performance  of   Information Commissioners   in respect 
of  imposition of  penalty 
is as follows.

·        
Out  of
733 cases  disposed  by State 
Chief  Information Commissioner,  penalty 
has been  imposed  on 29 
cases (
4%).

·        
Smt. Sashi Prava Bindhani, SIC  imposes penalty  on 
two  cases only  against 460 cases  disposed ( 0.45%).

·        
Sri L.N.Patnaik, SIC   has imposed 
penalty  on 7  cases 
against 390 cases  disposed ( 1.79%)

·        
All the  3
Information Commissioners  have not  recommended 
disciplinary  proceedings  against 
any erring  PIOs as required  under 
section 20(2)  of the RTI Act.

As  per the 
information provided   by
office  of Odisha  Information Commission, Total no. of 11,762 cases ( Both SA 
and  Complaint  case) 
is pending  in the  Commission. 
If  the  present 
performance  of the  Information Commissioners  in respect 
of  disposal of cases are   taken into 
consideration, cases  which are  filed  
today ( 2019)  will be herd  in 2024.

Prepared  by

Pradip Pradhan, RTI Activist

State  Convener, Odisha
soochana  Adhikar Abhijan

M-9937843482

Date-29.3.19