Date:03/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/03/stories/2008080354320500.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

‘Common man not aware of RTI’

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Former Law Commission Chairman and former Supreme Court Judge, Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy, has expressed concern over dismissal of 60 per cent of complaints filed under Right to Information Act for procedural lapses.

Justice Reddy was talking to media persons after releasing the ‘Performance Appraisal Report’ brought out by the United Forum for RTI Campaign on the functioning of State Information Commission (SIC) here on Saturday.

Most of the petitions were dismissed on frivolous grounds like no proper attestation etc., while the objective of the Act was to help common man take his grievances to the State Departments and use RTI as a tool to check corruption, he noted. “When courts themselves accepted even telegrams as petitions and acted upon them, why should the SIC reject 60 per cent of cases?” he wondered.

Justice Reddy also said that better awareness be created about the Act so that people who face problems in their day to day life related to civil supplies, hospitals, social welfare departments would get information they required to exercise their rights. Former Press Academy Chairman Potturi Venkateswara Rao said the judiciary as in Consumer Protection Act should be involved in implementation of RTI Act.