Call to review RTI Act

HYDERABAD: The Right to Information Act can be better implemented only
if the judiciary is involved, Justice Jeevan Reddy said here on
Saturday.

He was speaking at the launch of the 'Andhra Pradesh State Information
Commission- Performance Appraisal' done by the United Forum for RTI
Campaign (UFFRC) here.

"A disturbing thing in the implementation of the Act is rejection of
applications based on procedural violations. This should not be the
reason for rejecting applications," Jeevan Reddy said.

The review study was done by Umesh Varma Pakalapati and Rakesh Reddy
Dubbudu of UFFRC. According to the report, nearly 60 per cent of
applications have been rejected based on procedural lapses.

Jeevan Reddy said the Act was introduced to ensure better governance
and reduce corruption. "If the procedural violations are deemed as
obstacles, then the whole purpose of the Act is defeated," he said.

Participating in the meeting, former chairman of the Press Academy,
Potturi Venkateshwara Rao, said though the RTI Act came into force in
2005, till now there was no review done about its effectiveness. It
would have been ideal had the government reviewed the Act. The
Assembly should have discussed the performance of the Act.

"On one occasion, a Supreme Court judge had observed that if
applicants had exhausted the options, courts can intervene in helping
one to get information," Venkateshwara Rao said.

Till date, in Andhra Pradesh penal fee was paid only to one person for
being denied information. In Orissa, nearly 59 applicants were paid a
penal fee of Rs 6,50,000.

In 2006, the number of applications were 8,864, while in 2007 it was 31,964.
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Times of India, 3 Aug 2008,TNN