By IANS,
New Delhi : Nearly ten months have passed since the Central Information Commission (CIC) directed the Women and Child Development (WCD) ministry to improve the functioning of the National Commission for Women (NCW) but still no action has been taken, a Right to Information (RTI) activist claimed.
In an order passed August 2008, the CIC had rapped the NCW for not maintaining their files and records properly.
“Having heard the arguments and examined the files we are constrained to observe with deep regret the lack of a functional system in the NCW in dealing with so important a case that was brought before the NCW by Commodore (retired) Lokesh K. Batra,” the CIC had observed in its order, on RTI applications by Batra seeking information regarding the Nithari killings.
The commission had then asked the WCD ministry to improve the NCW’s functioning, by instituting “a regular administrative structure” for it, in accordance with the RTI Act, 2005, to maintain records. The ministry had been given 30 days to accomplish this and inform the CIC.
“To know how the order was complied with, I filed an RTI application June 12 with the WCD ministry to ascertain the compliance details of CIC order, and found it had not taken any action for nearly ten months,” Batra told IANS, adding that neither had the CIC pursued the matter.
“The WCD ministry failed to comply with the CIC orders as directed. It required another fresh RTI application by me to force WCD come out of its slumber and initiate action on the CIC orders after a delay of nearly ten months,” he said.
According to Batra, from the the file notings he has received through his RTI plea, it seemed that at one stage the ministry itself had a doubt about its administrative power to issue directives to NCW.
The reply by the ministry to Batra highlights the inaction in the case.
“The CIC directive was received on September 2, 2008. Due to an incorrect understanding of the order of CIC, no follow up action was taken. However, after receiving your application, the relevant file was located and a letter has been sent to the member secretary NCW for taking appropriate action,” the ministry said.
The ministry then simply sent a letter to NCW with the copy of the CIC order to take appropriate action and inform the CIC and ministry about the compliance.
Batra said it also seemed the officials — registrars or deputy/assistant registrars attached with the particular CIC or information commissioners — tasked to monitor compliance of the information commissioners’ orders are lax.
“The secretariat staff (registrars or deputy/assistant registrars) of CIC is lax and does not monitor compliance of the commissioners’ orders resulting in non-compliance by the public authorities. The information commissioners are blamed,” he said.