Government to appoint more RTI officials to clear backlog

Times of India: Pune: Sunday, December 24, 2017.

The Maharashtra government is keen on appointing more Right to Information (RTI) commissioners to clear the backlog of RTI cases in the state.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday assured the legislative council that more commissioners will be appointed after a discussion with the chief RTI commissioner a demand raised by MLC Sanjay Dutt and RTI activists.

Fadnavis stated that as the information commission is quasi-judicial in nature, the decision to increase the strength of commissioners will be taken after a discussion with the state RTI commissioner. He said that the state government will take adequate steps to deal with those who misuse the RTI Act.

Dutt told TOI that the government has assured that more commissioners will be appointed. Currently, there are eight benches and the post of chief RTI commissioner has been lying vacant from early this year.

RTI activist Shailesh Gandhi, who has written to the chief minister urging him to fill up vacant posts in the State Information Commission, said that the government's decision to appoint more RTI commissioners was a "welcome relief".

"We had placed a demand for at least 11 benches to clear the huge backlog of RTI cases in the state," Gandhi said.

"We are happy that the chief minister is considering our proposal to appoint two or more information commissioners, apart from the chief information commissioner, to ensure faster disposal of cases,'' he said.

Dutt said that with the appointment of more commissioners, pendency of RTI cases will decrease in the state. According to RTI activists, the largest backlog of cases is in Nashik division, where nearly 10,600 cases are pending, followed by Pune division with 8,246 cases, Aurangabad with 7,000 cases and Konkan with 4,000 cases.

Earlier, the activists had demanded that the state information commission should set a target for each commissioner to dispose of 5,000 cases per year. They also demanded a review of performance of commissioners every six months and display of information on the state information commission website.

According to the data, during 2011, six Central Information Commissioners had disposed of 22,351 cases, whereas in 2014, seven commissioners had disposed of 16,006 cases. The Maharashtra Commission has set a target of disposal of 4,800 cases per year for each commissioner. Gandhi said the commission's proceedings should be recorded and made available to the participants.