Indian Express:KapilDave:Sunday, February 05, 2012.
GANDHINAGAR: Gujarat Information Commission plans to hold Lok Darbars (special public gatherings) in all the districts of the state for speedy disposal of pending appeals under Right to Information (RTI) Act.
Sources said RTI applicants and concerned public information officers (PIO) would be called at such gatherings in an attempt to resolve the issue on the same day.
Maharashtra has considerably reduced its backlog of RTI appeals this way, they said.
“We are finalising our plan for Lok Darbars in all the districts and will announce it shortly,” state’s Chief Information Commissioner D Rajagopalan said.
At present, the state has only three information commissioners, less than what some states with smaller population have. Arunachal Pradesh (with a population of 10 lakh) has 5 ICs, Karnataka (5.2 crore) and
Jharkhand (2.6 crore) have seven ICs each, while Punjab (2.4crore) has 6 ICs.
As for the staff strength, 10 out of 44 sanctioned posts are vacant, and most are appointed through contracts and using outside agencies.
So far, 22,082 appeals and complaints have been received by the commission since the RTI came into being in 2005. While 13,078 cases were disposed of, 9,004 cases remain were pending as on December 31, 2011, which means a 40 per cent pendency rate.
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