Times of India: Pune: Wednesday, November 14,
2018.
Stressing on the need for more
transparency in the Right to Information (RTI) mechanism and better
implementation of the act, a petition was recently addressed to chief minister
Devender Fadnavis. One specific demand in the petition is for all RTI responses
to be put up on the government websites.
Former information commissioner Shailesh
Gandhi, who initiated the petition, told TOI, “We wish to draw attention to the
growing illegal and anti-democratic practice in many government and municipal
bodies of denigrating and abusing RTI users.”
“Such practices have also led to violence
against and murder of RTI users,” he added. Gandhi, who is am RTI activist,
said if all the information is made available on the websites, nobody can be
blackmailed. He has requested the chief minister to ensure that the practice of
abusing RTI users stops and citizens are treated with respect. Those who defame
and bully citizens must be punished, he said in the petition.
Gandhi also called for the scrapping of
the police complaints against RTI users.
On Monday, Gandhi said he received a text
message from the chief minister with an assurance that he would look into the
issue and that the Chief Minister’s Office will forward the petition to the home
and urban development departments
Though the state general administration
department had issued a directive on August 25, 2015, asking all public
authorities to upload all RTI queries and the responses on their websites, this
is not being implemented.