About 24 per cent of public authorities, under the Right to Information Act, have failed to file their annual report (returns), a mandatory provision of the transparency act, with the Central Information Commission, an RTI activist has claimed.
In his letter to Minister of State for PMO, Jitendra Singh and Cabinet Secretary, Commodore (retd) Lokesh Batra has alleged that Central Information Commission (CIC) report for 2014-15 shows authorities were not complying with the mandatory provisions of the RTI Act asking them to file annual returns.
Annual returns are detailed reports of the work done by the public authorities for RTI.
Only 76 per cent of public authorities under the RTI Act have filed their mandatory returns with the CIC, Batra claimed.
"...The perusal of CIC's Annual Report 2014-2015, brings out serious lapses regarding non-compliance of the government directions/provisions of the RTI Act, 2005, by the Public Authorities (PAs) of the Central Government. The said report was recently laid in the houses of Parliament," he alleged.
Batra said there was a huge reduction in the "number of Public Authorities registered with CIC".
"For example: in 2012-2013, if the number was 2,333; in 2014-2015, the number came down to 2,030. This amounts to Public Authorities ignoring the Act of Parliament. Of the above abridged number of 2,030 PAs registered; only 76 per cent (average) have submitted their 'Annual Returns' to CIC. It shows the public authorities have no respect for the Law of the land," he said.
This has resulted in inaccurate presentation of health of the "Transparency Law" in the Parliament, he claimed.
Talking to PTI, he claimed office of the Minister and Cabinet Secretary has assured him of action.
