Sunday, August 8, 2010

Petitions pile up at Information Commission

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala State Information Commission is faced with a large backlog of appeal petitions, and the problem is worsening day by day.

Vacancies in the commission, staff shortages and a lack of proper systems add to the problem.

Appeal petitions now take more than 15 months to be disposed of. State Chief Information Commissioner Palat Mohandas and commissioners V.V. Giry and K. Rajagopal differ on the number of pending cases and the reasons for that, though they agree to the increasing trend.

The annual report of the commission for 2009-10 says the panel received 1,256 complaints (on non-disposal of requests and other omissions and commissions by the State public information officers) and 1,556 second appeals on decisions of public authorities during the year. As many as 1,350 complaints and 842 appeals were disposed of.

However, data furnished by the two commissioners say only 226 appeals were disposed of.

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