New Delhi: Reena, a single mother, has been unable to acquire Scheduled Caste certificates for her children as her RTI (Right to Information) application filed in 2016, still remains unanswered.
“I had applied for Scheduled Caste certificates for my children but was told by the Revenue Department that the caste certificate of the father needs to be provided. In 2016, I filed the RTI application seeking information on the documents to be provided by a single mother.
“Despite orders of the appellate authority, till date, neither has the PIO (Public Information Officer) complied with the order nor has my matter been taken up for disposal,” said Ms. Reena, a resident of a slum in the Dakshinpuri area in the capital.
She was speaking at a public hearing on the functioning of Information Commissions (IC) across the country that saw the participation of people from 14 States.
A study conducted by Delhi-based research and advocacy organisation Centre for Equity Studies and citizens’ group Satark Nagrik Sangathan had highlighted several issues, including lack of transparency and skewed composition of the ICs, inadequate imposition of penalties, and the issue of delayed responses.
‘Dissuade people’
“The State Information Commission (SIC) is functioning with only one commissioner, even though nearly 14,000 appeals and complaints are pending with it. Because of the massive backlog, it is impossible to get a date before at least a year. This can be seen as a tactic of the government to dissuade people from filing RTIs as applicants are bound to lose patience due to the delayed response,” said Abey George from Kerala.
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