Times of India: Aurangabad: Monday,
August 29, 2016.
The State
Information Commission (SIC) has failed to provide any complaint redressal
system or email address of the officials of its Aurangabad bench on the website
for citizens to lodge their grievances under the Right to Information Act,
2005.
Also, the
Aurangabad bench of the SIC does not have a full-time commissioner for over a
year since the then chief, Justice D B Deshpande, resigned from the post. In
the meantime, the pendancy of second appeals made under the RTI Act has soared
to 5,000. Over 30,000 RTI queries are pending at the state SIC, including 7,000
cases in Pune.
RTI activist
Milind Bembalkar accused the state government of neglecting the transparency
legislation. "In December 2015, state information commissioner Ratnakar
Gaikwad had issued orders that the websites of all key government departments
should be updated twice every year. The Maharashtra government had issued a
resolution on January 28, 2016 in this respect to all departments. However, the
SIC's website has not even uploaded Aurangabad bench details and email
address," he said.
Since June
2015, no full-time information commissioner has been appointed at Aurangabad
bench. V D Patil, information commissioner for Nagpur bench of SIC, has been
given additional charge of Aurangabad division since November 2015, said
Bembalkar.
RTI activist
Vivek Welankar said that despite the government having provision of appointing
11 information commissioners, it has not appointed more than 6 commissioners
till now. "To leave the top post empty when cases are mounting shows that
the government doesn't think public information is important," Welankar
said.
Bembalkar
said the absence of a full-time Aurangabad bench information commissioner had
given a leeway for officials. "The officials have a field day. There is no
control and vigilance regarding the implementation of the orders passed by the
bench. At present, there is no complaint redressal system available to raise
this issue," he alleged.
The poor
situation at the Aurangabad bench of the SIC is reflected in its condition at
the Bachat Bhavan, Aurangabad. "The office lacks proper sitting
arrangement for citizens, who come for hearings. With complete chaos and
mismanagement, people have wait for a whole day. Even after spending time in
such distressing conditions, at the end of the day, they turn back without
justice," alleged RTI activist Santosh Ghule.
An official
at SIC Aurangabad bench, on the condition of anonymity, said around 500 to 600
applications of second appeals are filed here. As the information commissioner
holds additional charge of Aurangabad, Amravati and Nagpur, there is minimal
time to conduct hearings regularly, he said.
The official
added that around 2,000 pending cases have been cleared since Patil took charge
of Aurangabad bench. But Patil is yet to conduct a hearing this month, the
official said.
On the single
day, generally, around 60 to 80 cases are taken up for hearing and around
200-300 people gather on the premises. It is difficult to accommodate them in
the office, said the official.
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