DNA: Mumbai: Friday, May 12, 2017.
RTI activist
and former central information commissioner, Shailesh Gandhi, in a letter to
the chief minister has demanded that a new state chief information commissioner
as well as information commissioners be appointed soon. The current chief
Ratnakar Gaikwad is due to retire at the end of this month.
The law
permits up to eleven information commissioners and the state presently has
eight including the chief.
"We are
having problems implementing the Right To Information Act owing to backlogs in
some of the benches of the State Information Commission. This is partly due to
delay in the appointment of information commissioners by different state
governments since 2005. Presently, about 40,000 cases are pending... Even if
seven commissioners hear 5,000 cases every year, it would mean, an applicant
would have to wait for over a year to have their appeal heard. While the law
states that a citizen should be provided information in 30 days, a wait of over
a year would reduce the RTI to being irrelevant," wrote Gandhi.
Some RTI
activists have been demanding that a chief be appointed soon because the
general administration of the commission suffers.
"The
process of appointing chief info commissioners should be started four months in
advance (before the incumbent retires). And there should be transparency in the
appointment the commissioners. An RTI activist should certainly be considered
for the post," said GR Vora, an RTI user.
There was no
response from the chief minister when asked to comment on the letter.
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