With awareness, greater demand for implementation

A week ago, when the information commission pulled up civil officials for sitting on a file, it was not the first time he had cited the long Government Servants Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act. In a number of orders before this too officials were warned for keeping files pending with them in contravention of the above Act.

While commissions are pointing out the delays under the light of the Act, as the knowledge of it grows, citizens are using and citing it to seek redressal of their complaints or point out that there is undue delay in taking decision by officers. The Act is also being increasingly clubbed with the Right to Information Act (RTI) for a more effective impact.

Former central information commissioner, Shailesh Gandhi, and activist Jeetendra Ghadge had used it to know the status of files seeking sanctions for prosecuting officers that were pending with the home department after the anti-corruption bureau had sent the proposal. When the response was given, it had come to light that various sanctions were pending, some to the extent of six months.

"We have also used the Act to complain to officials that they should act. The problem is that people are not acting. Like in Jogeshwari, a developer was allowed to build a residential tower without the corporation changing the reservation of the plot from that of municipal school. We want to see some action on it and we are not seeing that," said Hemant Dalal, who used the Act to file a complaint in the municipal commissioner's office.

Although the Act talks about administrative audit withing 12 months of the Act coming into effect, it is struggling with its charters and implementation stage. "The problem is that the Act is like a showpiece without any implementation. There needs to be a commission or some kind of monitoring for its implementation," said Ghadge.