DNA: Mumbai: Friday, November 27, 2015.
The state
information commission has issued a notice to the chief secretary on
non-compliance of its order bringing ministers under the ambit of the Right to
Information (RTI) Act. dna in its September 25 issue reported the order which stated
that it had to be complied by October 31. The notice for conducting inquiry on
non-compliance was issued on November 23 and a hearing is scheduled for
November 30. State chief secretary Swadheen Kshatriya and the additional chief
secretary of General Administration Department have been called to question
non-compliance.
Except the
chief minister's office, office of other ministers stopped taking applications
slowly, and applications had to be marked to their departments. When the order
was passed by state chief information commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad, it stated:
"Undoubtedly, offices of ministers and ministers of state have been set up
by government and these officers perform various types of duties such as
receiving files from various department, receiving applications from public,
dealing with the applications. complaints received from the public and
correspondence with various authorities/offices etc."
It adds:
"Sizeable staff is also sanctioned by government to the officers of
ministers to perform various functions, some of which are mentioned above....
The said offices, therefore, fall under the purview of the section 2 (h) (d) of
the RTI Act, 2005." Section 2 (h) (d) pertains to the definition of a
public authority. The order was passed after an application filed by Fort
resident and journalist, Govind Tupe. Tupe in his application had sought
information from from ministers' office over the recommendation letters they
write after some people appointed on the recommendation letters were arrested.
The application was taken but never replied to. "Ministers give big
speeches and make tall claims. They are all about bravado. Having them under
RTI will help one know whether they even act after making big speeches,"
said Tupe.
He added,
"I feel that that government is knowingly delaying it. When I was
following up the issue, law and judiciary department has opined that it be done
as soon as possible. Still I do not know why they are delaying it. It will only
be a good things and in fact government should give wide publicity to the
issue," said Tupe. While Kshatriya is on leave and PS Meena, additional
chief secretary of GAD, did not response to calls from dna.
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