Mumbai Mirror: Mumbai: Saturday,
October 29, 2016.
Former
Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has drawn Chief Minister
Devendra Fadnavis’s attention to the lack of information commissioners in the
state, through an open letter. Here’s what he said:
“Maharashtra
is probably the leader in the nation amongst states in RTI applications. We
also have the dubious distinction of having the largest number of RTI users
murdered.
“I might
mention that nearly half the RTI applications have to be made since most government
departments violate the transparency law in fulfilling their duties under
Section 4 of the act. If they gave the information suo moto as mandated in the
law citizens would not have to make half the applications.
“Apart from
this are many decisions of all adjudicating bodies which do not decide RTI
matters as per the statute passed by our Parliament. You may be aware that the
Indian RTI Act ranks amongst the top five in the world in terms of its
provisions, but our nation ranks at number 66 in implementation.
“The purpose
of this communication is to draw your attention to the fact that the
Maharashtra Information Commission is being pushed into becoming dysfunctional
and irrelevant due to carelessness by the government. The RTI Act envisages a
maximum number of 11 information commissioners in a state. Our state had eight
information commissioners, who were barely able to cope. Now we have only five
commissioners.
“The state
commission has about 42,000 cases pending. And each year over 40,000 fresh
cases are coming to the commission. Across the nation most commissioners
dispose about 3,000 cases per year. The Maharashtra commissioners dispose about
4,500 cases per year.
“Despite
this, in some of the benches the pendency is over two years. Unless commissions
dispose cases in less than three months, they will stop being able to service
the average citizen. If vacancies are continued they will become like our
courts, which have rendered dysfunctional because of vacancies.
“Please take
early action to select and appoint at least five more information commissioners
who have a predilection for transparency and an empathy and understanding of
the RTI Act.
“The RTI is a
fundamental right of citizens, and the state has the duty to provide the
required number of information commissioners. The chief information
commissioner has been trying to draw the attention to this problem and has sent
four letters so far since August 2015. At the Centre all the vacant posts were
filled after getting a Delhi High Court direction. I hope we will not require
such a step in our state.
“The RTI is
the path to swaraj, without which suraaj is not possible. I am attaching the
latest plea of the Maharashtra chief information commissioner. Please take
urgent action in this matter.”
Yours
sincerely,
Shailesh
Gandhi,
Former
Central Information Commissioner
.JPG)
.JPG)
