AP Information Commission is a farse
I have really bad experiences with AP State Information Commission. These guys at APIC are care free birds. For the information commissiors their designation is important. They enjoy the luxuries of the designation and do very little to do justice to RTI spirit.
In one hearing that i attended there, they asked me to come to their office and pickup the information on last saturday. I went to their office today (2 work days delay) assuming that information will be available there and I just need to pickup from them.
they gave me one sheet which is response from GHMC Superintending Engineer-II (Lt No SE-II/GHMC/PA/2008-2009/1669. With just one line response "Total no of speed breakers in GHMC are 4261"
My request contained what is the total footpath and usable foot path as well as how many speed breakers and for how many of them indicators are available.
When insisted for information in complete, they said go and meet Mr. Sudarshan SE-II at GHMC office at 3PM tomorrow. Also they are blaming me for not turning up on last Saturday.
When I asked for next level of escalation, they said it is at "High court".
Actually I filed RTI appeal (2nd appeal) with APIC in May 2008, and there is a long gap for the hearing. The Information commissioners are really big junk guys there. They are the best people in the state who are killing the "SPIRIT OF RTI".
I will post updates later in the day or tomorrow.
Comments
There is no clause in the RTI Act which requires the applicant to meet the PIO for getting information.
Your observations about APSIC are correct. Just visit www.rtiindia.org and search for the threads with the tag "apsic" or "apic" or "andhra pradesh" - you will exactly know what APSIC is all about.
In one case, the PIO asked to pay the cost of the material after 30 days. However, I have paid,as per the instructions of the APIC, but the PIO did knot furnish the information even after a period of 3 months. When case was filed with the APIC for refund of amount, furnishing of information, awarding compensation and interest, postage charges, in the month of June, 2016, no orders so far have been received. In each and every case, simply issuing directions to furnish the Information and mention of SCN is being issued.IN Punjab & Haryana High Court specially ordered the SIC has no option but to exercise powers U/s 20 of the Act.