Punjab’s Right to Information: All is not Well

Union Government has given tool to the public of this country of Right to Information Act on 12th October,2005, through this act he/she can get any information within specific time from every government’s office barring Jammu and Kashmir state, and failure to provide information within stipulated time is entitle for monetary punishment.

• Q. What does information mean?
• A. Information means any material in any form including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, data material held in any electronic form and information relating to any private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law for the time being in force but does not include "file notings".
• Q.What does Right to Information mean?
• A. It includes the right to -
• i. inspect works, documents, records.
• ii. take notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records.
• iii. take certified samples of material.
• iv. obtain information in form of printouts, diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through printouts.

but in Punjab state Right to Information Activists are raising fingers on to the decisions of Punjab state information commission and they bundled hundred such decisions which are not proving in the right spirit of the act as per there opinion, more over published hundred decisions are based only of one and half years period. On 12th April,2011, Chief pattern of RTI activists Federation Advocate R.S.Bains release the book in the presence of other members like President H.C. Arora and State Secretary Anil Vashist, when section of media make contact with the Punjab Chief Information Commissioner R.I. Singh and try to get his opinion on to the book which was published by RTI activists federation, he responded that he has not read the book, but still if anybody has any objection on to the decision of the Punjab state information commission then he/she are free to take it at higher levels of commission.
     Right to information activists federation of Punjab raises there objections on to the verdicts of state information commission, which they compile hundred such cases’ whom they consider are not satisfactory, these are of last one and half years period, and these are published in a book. The book was release by federation Chief Pattern Mr. RS Bains and on the stage he was accompanied by President and Secretary Mr. HC Arora and Mr. Anil Vashist respectively, while expressing the necessity to publish a book which contains one hundred suspicious verdicts of commission they said it was considered by the federation to publish controversial verdicts because state information commission is not doing justification with the basic purpose of RTI Act, moreover state government should consider at the time of appointing members of commission that they deserve to be part of he commission and any other criteria should not be prefer, plus commission’s fifty percent post should be pass on to the retired judge or RTI activists, so that not only it solve the purpose of act but public will also get correct information. They try to make contact with deputy CM of state but they were not succeed, now they will make contact with CM, Deputy CM’s advisors, personal secretary and political secretary through SMS’s, which they have plan to send around five hundred in a day, and in spite of that if they won’t get positive response then there federation has plan to protest on 16th May, the day when State Information Commissioners Mr. PK Verma and Mr. Surendar Singh are going to retire, at Chandigarh. While explaining some of the decisions which compile in the book and are suspicion in nature, they mentioned three such cases’-

• A petitioner from the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, through his NGO file appeal at state information commission, and commission while announcing its verdict on to the appeal said that only citizen of this country can get information through this act, not any NGO.
• One another case commission issue notice to a person whose name was not in the complaint.
• In one another decision commission said rejected candidates cannot get information about selected candidates.

RTI activists federation of Punjab state has try to bend government and state information commission with proves about hundred decisions of commission that were dubious in nature, so both need immediate attention plus there should be half the number of commission members from public domain, so that public can be benefited from RTI Act as it is meant for them.