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At a seminar on ‘RTI Act: Challenges and Opportunities’ at the Merchants Chamber of Commerce in the city, Bhattacharya said: “Compared to other states like Maharashtra and Delhi, West Bengal is lagging far behind. In Maharashtra 1.53 lakh applications have been received but in West Bengal where the commission was constituted in 2006, so far only 15,000 applications have been received. Of which only 10 per cent had been disposed of. It is very unfortunate.”
He attributed this to various reasons, including lack of infrastructure and attitude problem.
Chief Information Commissioner of India, Wajahat Habibullah, who was also presented at the seminar, supported Bhattacharya’s contention.
“It is true that West Bengal is lagging behind in dissemination of information. But there is also this fact that West Bengal started late. I believe there is much scope of progress in this regard. In West Bengal panchayati raj is very strong and I have been told that lots of information lie with the panchayats. People can avail them by using the RTI. I also believe that the awareness level among the people should also be increased,” he said.
Bhattacharya also said that the deal or the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the state government and some other party cannot be dubbed a “trade secret” and it should be made public.
Incidentally, state minister for commerce and industries Nirupam Sen had earlier said that the deal between the state government and the Tatas on the Singur small car manufacturing plant cannot be revealed as it was a “trade secret”.
“If there is any formula or a design for manufacturing something you can call that a “trade secret”. There had been many moves to make that deal (the one between the Tatas and the government) public. However, the government has not yet done that,” Bhattacharya said.
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