Holes in CIC office monitoring system

Days after Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Wajahat Habibullah said the Commission has put in place a monitoring system at its office, it has emerged that the instructions are not being followed in letter and spirit.

Days after Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Wajahat Habibullah said the Commission has put in place a monitoring system at its office, it has emerged that the instructions are not being followed in letter and spirit.

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While hearing a complaint by RTI activist and retired Naval officer L.K. Batra in 2009 about National Commission for Women, Habibullah had recommended some steps to be taken by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

“This exercise may be completed within 30 days of the issue of this decision notice under intimation to P.K.P. Shreyaskar, Joint Registrar of Central Information Commission,” Habibullah had said.

However, when Batra tried to find out if it has been complied with, his query with the Commission met with several hurdles. “I send my applications by post instead of going to far off offices. The Commission’s office counted the 30 days mandatory period (for giving information) from the date when the Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO) received my application,” Batra said. When he was given a chance to inspect the files he found more issues. “There is a mix up of documents in files. There was no record of documents maintained in files with related note numbers of noting sheets, as per rule,” he said.

Habibullah had told HT recently that the Commission’s secretary was authorised to monitor cases of non-compliance. On Friday, Habibullah said, “I am aware that there can be some problems with filing systems but not many.

“However, we do regular reviews and for the last two months we have computerised many sections and are streamlining the system. The gap between the day it is delivered and when it reaches CPIO has reduced to three-four days,” Habibullah added.