Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Information Commission has achieved a historic record by disposing 12,928 cases in last ten months. With this, the number of pending cases has come down to 9,688 from 22,611 in the state.

The disposal of cases increased substantially after the appointment of State Chief Information Commissioner and three new Information Commissioners by the state government in April last year. The Commission has been focusing on quick disposal of cases and avoiding unnecessary adjournment so that the applicants get the required information on time.

The Commission has disposed all pending cases of the year 2021 and 2022 while only a few cases pertaining to the year 2023 and 2024 are pending. The Commission has now started hearing fresh cases filed in 2025 and 2026.

Penalties worth Rs 1.47 crore imposed on guilty officials

Apart from speedy disposal of cases, the Commission has passed important directions such as direction to Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) to provide interview marks of each candidates. A direction has also been to the Odisha Staff Selection Commission (OSSC) to provide skill test and computer test marks to both successful and failed candidates.

The Commission has ordered enquiry into several cases where the Public Information Officers (PIOs) denied information to the applicants citing non-availability of data. Besides, steps have been taken to fix the responsibility and initiate action against the guilty.

The Commission has also started a special drive to detect cases where certain habitual applicants were using fake BPL cards to demand information free of cost from the government and submitting hundreds of applications to choke the system. 

In a particular case where the RTI applicant from Balangir was found demanding bribe from PIO to withdraw the RTI application has been referred to the police for investigation. The Commission has imposed penalties to the tune of Rs 1,47,76,250 on guilty officials for delay in supply of information and also for unjust denial of information.

The Commission disposing 1,500 cases every month

 In a recent case, Chief Information Commissioner ManojParida has imposed a penalty of Rs 25,000 on a police official in Ganjam District for violation of the RTI Act. The Commission has also started rigorous screening of applications to filter out frivolous RTI applications which are filed through multiple applications on the same subjects.

Despite shortage of regular staff, the Commission has been disposing 1,500 cases every month while receiving around 500 cases from the petitioners. 

A high-level committee has been constituted in the Commission to monitor non-implementation of the verdicts and take up the matter with the state government at the highest level for strict implementation of Commission’s orders.