Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Former info commissioner files RTI petition with CM

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.