Despite four notices and hearings of 40 cases in the past five months, the PIO and the first appellate authority have repeatedly failed to appear and are refusing to appear, and the Information Commission is urged to issue a non-bailable warrant against them and issue a press release

The people of Odisha will judge.Today, two news items related to the Information Commission are coming to your attention.

This press release has been issued by the Information Commission. This press release states that after the Information Commission came to the notice of the Information Commission regarding a news report of an information applicant in Balangir district seeking information and asking for money from PIOs, the Information Commission has directed the Director General of Police to investigate. The police will investigate the truth of this incident and if there is truth, the police will take action as per the law. We have nothing to say in this regard.

But the question arises, what is the purpose of the Information Commission issuing a press release in this regard? Again, a newspaper has been told that an investigation has been ordered against the RTI worker. Why was this done or was the Commission not doing this to hide its incompetence through this press release and to show that this is a great success?

Coming to the topic l For the last five months, more than 40 second appeals and complaints have been going on in the Information Commission against Dharmashala Tehsil of Jajpur district. These cases are from 2021, 2022. The complainant is Sarveshwar Behura, a RTI activist who was a victim of bomb attack while seeking information from Dharmashala Tehsil. Chief Information Commissioner Manoj Parida and three other Information Commissioners are hearing all these cases.

But in the past five months, the Information Commission has set four dates for the then PIO and the first appellate authority of the tehsil and the current PIO and the first appellate authority have not come. The two officers who are committing grave violations are the current BDO of Barang block, Ishwetha Das, and BDO of Bhubaneswar, Devi Mohanty. These two officers were the Tahsildar and Additional Tahsildar in Dharmashala Tehsil. Along with the then MLA Pranab Balawantray, These two officers have looted everything. Sarveshwar has filed more than 40 applications to expose the corruption and loot of these two officers. These two officers did not provide information even after knowing it. Now, despite repeated notices being given to these officers by the Information Commission for five months, they have not come. And what is surprising is that the Information Commission has also not been able to do anything.

They ignored the order of the Chief Information Commissioner and did not provide the information. Still, Manoj Parida could not do anything. He expressed helplessness to Sarveshwar.

2. Mrs. Simal Patnaik gave notice three times. But these two officers did not listen or did not come. Still Simal Patnaik is unable to do anything. She is calm and silent. She does not know what to do.

3. The sacred Mandal of the Information Commission has already served notices to these two officers and others thrice in 12 months. But they have not come or have not responded. No officers care about the Information Commissioners. And this Commission also does not know what to do. Today I asked Mr. Mandal to issue a warrant against this officer. Mr. Mandal was scared. No answer came out of his mouth. I asked again what the order did, he remained silent without saying anything. Such a disaster of the Information Commission has not been seen in the past.

This situation has arisen due to ignorance and incompetence regarding the Information Commission Act.

The Commission, which has failed to properly implement the Information Act and has failed to take action against the PIOs who have violated the law, is creating a storm in the media by issuing such a press release to hide its incompetence and incompetence.

Eight months have passed, the Information Commission officials have not been able to call the order. They still do not understand or interpret the law. The law officer is not there, so the order writing is stopped. They are listening to an average of 10 cases per day for an hour. They do not know what to order. They do not come prepared after reading the cases. It is a shameful situation. Seeing such a pathetic situation, we feel pity for them, we also feel sad.

How many hairs have been penalized? When asked for information, there is no answer. Or even the Legislative Assembly is not given information.