Times of India: Mumbai: Saturday, April 27, 2013.
Maharashtra
has overtaken the Centre when it comes to the disposal rate of Right to
Information applications. Between June 2012 and March 2013, the state's five
information commissioners cleared 23,693 appeals, clocking an approximate
average of 4,740 per info commissioner.
During the
same time, the average disposal rate of RTI applications dipped at the Centre
despite the fact that the count of information commissioners went up from five
to eight. Between June 2012 and March 2013, the eight central information
commissioners cleared 20,097 appeals, which translate to an average of 2,512
appeals per commissioner. Legally, a state of the central commission cannot
appoint more than 11 commissioners.
It is simple
economics that an increase in the count of workers sees a somewhat
proportionate rise in the output of work. But adding more central information
commissioners has not bettered the rate of clearing RTI appeals. In fact, just
a year ago, between June 2011 and March 2012, a total of 19,969 appeals
(average: 3,994) were disposed off among the five central commissioners.
Former
central information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has often said that it is not
difficult for a commissioner to clear about 5,000 appeals a year. When he
joined the commission in 2008, the average annual disposal rate stood at 2,500;
it went up to about 4,000.
When TOI
contacted Gandhi, he said, "If people work properly with all earnestness,
it is possible to clear about 7,000 applications in a year. Of course, the
quality of decision matters too and it remains to see that people who are
committed to transparency will deliver good decisions."
An RTI
activist said that he had been impacted by the slow functioning of the central
information commission.
"Appeals
keep growing and these numbers show that instead of yielding better results,
appointing more commissioners has made the situation worse.
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