The Hindu: Pune: Thursday, August
25, 2016.
The
appointment of bureaucrats as State Chief Information Commissioners (SIC) in
Maharashtra has irked RTI activists in the State. The government has not come
out with a single advertisement to fill posts.
In a detailed
letter to Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao earlier this month, city-based activist
Vijay Kumbhar said, “It is observed in Maharashtra the moment a bureaucrat
finishes his tenure of service, he is parked as an information officer. The
post of the SIC has pretty much been the playground of bureaucrats. This is
utterly contrary to the spirit of the RTI Act.”
Mr. Kumbhar
said since the RTI Act came into being, the State government had received more
than 130 applications for the posts of SICs. However, barring the appointment
of journalist Vijay Kuvalekar as a State Information Commissioner, all other
posts have been filled by bureaucrats, said Mr. Kumbhar.
Maharashtra
has six SIC benches spread across Mumbai, Konkan, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur and
Aurangabad divisions, with the State Chief Information Commissioner sitting in
Mumbai.
The function
of the commissioners involves hearing second appeals while deploying
quasi-judicial powers to implementation of the Act in a transparent manner.
Mr. Kumbhar
said, “Provisions under Sections 12 and 15 of the Act clearly stipulate that
SICs be persons of eminence in public life with wide experience and proficiency
in the fields of law, science and technology, journalism, management and social
service among others.”
State Chief
Information Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad has come under sharp criticism from
activists in March this year after he decided to go on three unauthorised
vacations while there was a massive pendency of 33,000 second appeals.