Chennai: PMK founder, Dr S. Ramadoss, urged the state government on Sunday to take steps to fill the vacant posts of chief information commissioner and six information commissioners in the Tamil Nadu state information commission to ensure its effective functioning. In a statement here, Dr Ramadoss said TNSIC should have one chief commissioner and 10 members. “As of now, there are only four members.
Instead of functioning as an appeal court to ensure delivery of information refused at lower offices, the commission threatens and chases away people coming to file appeal petitions,” he said. He cited an example of a person who sought information and was not only refused the information but was also threatened. “When he refused to yield, cases were foisted on him and he was sent to jail,” he added.
The state information commission is acting to protect corruption instead of acting against corruption, negating the whole purpose of the Right to Information Act itself, he alleged. He asked the state government to take full responsibility for its present state of affairs in the commission. “To fill up the vacancies in the TNSIC, the government has to consult the leader of the Opposition. To avoid this, the TN government is not taking any efforts to fill the vacancies,” he alleged.
