By RTI Activist Pradip Pradhan
BHUBANESWAR:Under the leadership of Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, the State Information Commission became a useless, unnecessary, uneconomical and corrupt institution within eight months.
Congratulations to the BJP government of Odisha Suchana Akhir Abhiyan for this noble work.
A. PIOs or government officials are no longer coming to the hearings of the Information Commission because they know that the Commission cannot do anything if they do not come.
B. Since the Commission has not properly heard the complaint, has not provided information, has merely ordered the complaint to be closed, and has not imposed a penalty, the complainant citizens or people are not encouraged to come to the Commission’s hearing.
C. The biggest thing is that the stupid, ignorant Information Commissioners are behaving rudely and talking rudely to the citizens during the hearings. That is why many older, decent people are hesitant to come to the hearings.
D. Many decent people have requested the Governor to dismiss this unethical commission.
How and why is this?
Today, on 24.2.26, I was present at the Commission of Shri Silpan Patnaik for the hearing of KESA SA Case No. 3942/24. Shri Patnaik was supposed to reach the Information Commission office at 10.30 and the hearing was supposed to start at 11.00. But he reached the office at 11.30 and the KESA hearing started within just five minutes. Unlike other commissioners, he did not have any prior preparation for the KESA hearing.
The said hair belonged to a woman from Jagatsihpur district. Her name is Mamata Sahu. She had requested information from the District Social Welfare Officer’s office regarding the Jyoti Women’s Committee of Kujang block. Since the information was not received, she filed a second appeal 3942/24 with the Information Commission.
Mrs. Kalpana Patnaik started the hearing on 18.11.25. But despite the notice, the PIO or any officer did not come to the hearing.
Mrs. Patnaik fixed 23.12.25 as the date for the hearing. No officer came on that day. The Commission again fixed 22.1.26 as the date. Still no one came. It is clear from this how petty officers in the state are indifferent to the information of the Commission. Mrs. Patnaik again fixed 24.2.26 as the date. The Commission ordered the District Collector to summon the officers and PIOs. The Commission’s order was so ignored that no one thought it appropriate to be present even on 24.2.26.
Today, during the hearing, I was present, laughing and enjoying the helplessness and helpless silence of Mrs. Patnaik and the utter indifference of the petty officer towards her. I could understand from Mrs. Patnaik’s helplessness how terrible the consequences of recklessly protecting and showing mercy to PIOs and other officers who violate the law without penalizing them can be.
I was even more surprised that Mrs. Patnaik did not come to call for the order. She herself did not know what to order. The hair was stopped. The appellant, Mamata Sahu, came to the hearing four times and returned home without getting any information. She said that there would be no loss to the four lakh rupees of Sampal Patnaik per month and said goodbye. This is not just one hair. This is one of thousands of hairs. The Information Commission has stopped thousands of such hairs without giving any information.
Chief Minister Mohan Majhi is dreaming of bringing such people to the commission and establishing clean governance. This is the naked character of the BJP regime.
Lucky Odisha, unlucky Odia.
