Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: The Assam Information Commission (AIC) has recommended to the state government to take suitable action against its 18 departments for their non-compliance with Section 25(2) of the RTI Act, 2005. This is a cause of concern for the Commission.
Section 25(2) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, mandates that each ministry or department, in relation to the public authorities within their jurisdiction, collect and provide information to the Central Information Commission or State Information Commission, as required for preparing reports under this section.
According to the Assam Information Commission, as many as eight departments of the Assam government failed to submit their full reports to it, and ten other departments submitted partial reports.
In its annual report of 2023-24, the Assam Information Commission said that ‘this non-compliance of the departments is despite it issuing them several reminders.’ The departments simply ignored the reminders.
The annual report said, “The Commission strongly recommends suitable action against the departments that have failed to comply with the statutory provisions under Section 25(2) of the RTI Act.”
The eight departments that failed to submit their report to the Assam Information Commission are Cultural Affairs, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affairs, Higher Education, Implementation of Assam Accord, Information Technology, PWD (Roads), Revenue and Disaster Management, and Women and Child Development.
The ten departments that submitted their reports partially to the Commission are Cooperation, Excise, Election, Health and Family Welfare, Housing and Urban Affairs, Irrigation, Panchayat and Rural Development, School Education, Sports and Youth Welfare, and Transport.
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