Chandigarh : Right to Information Act (RTI) activists from different parts of Punjab staged a dharna against lacunae in implementation of the Act here today. Led by Advocate HC Arora, president, and Anil Vashisht, secretary of the RTI Activists Federation, the dharna was staged in front of the Punjab State Information Commission office. Arora said, “This was the first phase of the agitation by the federation as the charter of demands submitted by the federation on November 16 had not evoked any response from the State Information Commissioner Ramesh Inder Singh.” He said the Commissioner was derailing the act by deliberately protecting the PIOs by not imposing penalties despite deliberate delay on their part in furnishing information to the applicants.
Vashisht levelled a serious allegation against certain Information Commissioners saying they were manipulating the logbooks of official cars. Showing to be travelling 50-60 km to and fro from the Information Commission, even on Saturdays or Sundays and other close days was questionable. Arora demanded that the retired IAS and police officers should not be appointed as the Information Commissioners; rather the RTI or human rights activists, and some other prominent persons of high integrity should be appointed as the Information Commissioners. The protesters raised slogans against the Information Commission. The gathering, which converted itself into an extended Executive Committee of the Federation, and passed an unanimous resolution to publish a booklet of 100 ridiculous decisions of the Punjab State Information Commission and to present it to the Governor through memorandums to be sent to the Governor through the respective Deputy Commissioners. The booklet will also be sent to all Information Commissioners as well as the High Court Judges across the country, to impress upon them the need or desirability of appointment of right and competent persons as the Information Commissioners. Arora declared that the booklet should be released in a press conference in the last week of January.
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