Thiruvananthapuram: When it comes to the question hour of assembly sessions, there is no dearth for stock answers such as “information is being collected” or “the issue is being studied” that ministers lavishly use when they face queries which may not have a proper reply for the time being. However, Kerala's education minister, C. Raveendranath, seems to be least bothered about throwing even such stock replies to legislators.
At the first session of the 14th Kerala Legislative Assembly, the education minister has been the least generous in replying to questions raised by legislators.
He responded only to 24 out of the 102 unstarred questions posed to him on July 11, while on July 18, he answered only 18 out of the 85 unstarred queries.
The education minister remained tongue-tied when many of his cabinet colleagues, public works minister G. Sudhakaran in particular, patiently answered almost all the questions thrown at them.
Notably, when Manjery MLA M. Ummer recently raised the issue of inordinate delay in getting replies, speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan had instructed the heads of departments to strictly adhere to the norms.
Unfortunately, the people’s representatives are being denied this right when the RTI Act mandates officials concerned to provide information to applicants within 30 days from the date of application. Moreover, under the Act, the official would face a penalty if she fails to provide the information within the prescribed period.
If there is no such provision in legislature rules which allowed action to be taken against an erring member, the question hour in assembly will remain a futile exercise, lamented a section of MLAs.