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RTI
queries on Balakrishnan's assets pile up
Monday May 02, 2011 08:23:46 PM,
Azera Rahman, IANS
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New Delhi: India's apex
human rights body gets about 40 RTI queries a month. But of late,
the number has shot up to almost 200. And a lot of them have to do
with former chief justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan's assets.
Balakrishnan is chairperson of the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC).
"The number of queries on the chairperson's assets has gone up.
The questions range from how much his assets are worth to asking
why he is not disclosing it," an NHRC official who did not wish to
be named told IANS.
Balakrishnan has been facing allegations after his family members
reportedly amassed wealth disproportionate to their known sources
of income.
An RTI activist had approached the income tax department seeking
details of Balakrishnan's wealth, saying that the former chief
justice had filed an affidavit to the tax authorities, claiming
that he cannot disclose his assets and all relevant details were
already put up on the Supreme Court website.
Balakrishnan told the income tax officials that he cannot disclose
his assets to the public as the information could be misused.
Besides queries on Balakrishnan, a chunk of the other RTI
questions have to do with the status of various cases which the
NHRC is handling.
"Around 30 percent of the RTI queries seek information on the
status of different cases which the commission is handling. People
want to know if the NHRC's recommendations have been taken up by
the government. Or if changes in laws suggested by us have been
implemented," the NHRC official said.
"There are also queries on how many cases the commission has taken
up since its inception, how many cases have been expedited, what
the categories are. There is a lot of interest in cases of
encounters. All these queries involve sifting through a lot of
paper work and we are bogged down," the official added.
But it's not just the "serious" questions, the RTI cell of the
commission - which constitutes four members - is bogged down with.
"We also get a lot of frivolous questions. For instance, how many
foreign trips have the members gone for or how much money is spent
on food and beverage," the official added.
(Azera Rahman can be contacted at azera.p@ians.in)
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