‘WE WILL NOT RESTRICT FLOW OF INFORMATION’

Mumbai Mirror: Mumbai: Saturday, December 23, 2017.

CM assures legislators that pendency of RTI appeals across the state will be brought down and also insists that his govt does not want to dampen the Act.

The post of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), which has been empty for a while, will be filled soon, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has assured. He said that a committee had shortlisted names for the post of the CIC and sent to the Governor for approval.

“I admit that the post of the state CIC is vacant but the committee has sent the names to the Governor for approval. The appointment will be made soon. Seven posts of Information Commissioners have been filled up and only the post of the CIC is now vacant,” Fadnavis told the legislative council on Friday.

A senior cabinet minister told Mumbai Mirror that Chief Secretary Sumit Mullick is likely to be the new CIC. Mullick has already applied for the job and his name has been sent to the Governor too.

Fadnavis also said that the state government would increase the number of Right to Information (RTI) commissioners in the state, if needed. “These are quasi-judicial authorities. So increasing the numbers will be decided only after a discussion with the CIC. We will not restrict the flow of information,” Fadnavis said.

However, striking a cautious note, Fadnavis said that the state government would look at possible ways of dealing with people who are misusing the RTI Act. “Without diluting the RTI Act, we will see if anything can be done to prevent its misuse,” Fadnavis said.

Fadnavis was replying to a query raised by Congress legislator Sanjay Dutt, who had raised the issue of pendency of RTI appeals across the state. “Due to vacancy in almost every division, there is large pendency of work. Nashik division has 10,600 appeals pending, Pune division 8,246, Aurangabad 7,000 and Konkan 4,000. The fact that the CIC’s post is vacant is also a matter for concern,” Dutt said.

Fadnavis said that his government was batting for the RTI Act and would not dampen the Act in letter or spirit. “We are completely positive about the effective implementation of the Act. We will hold a meeting with the Information Commissioners once the CIC is appointed and ask them to dispose of appeals in a time-bound manner. We will ensure that there is no pendency,” Fadnavis said.

Several legislators raised the issue of a new Government Resolution (GR) about information to be given to legislators. “This GR is trying to redefine ‘information’. But this has already been done in the central Act itself. So, there is confusion on the restriction of information that is to be given to legislators,” said NCP legislator Dhananjay Munde, the leader of the opposition in the legislative council.

Fadnavis, however, clarified that there would be no restriction of giving information to legislators. “There was confusion about the information that needed to be given to elected representatives. So this GR is just a guide for all departments.”

Last month, Mumbai Mirror had reported that over 40,000 appeals, arising from various government functions and agencies’ tendency to deny requested information or share only partial facts, were currently waiting to be heard by the state’s Information Commissioners. The backlog has worsened because of the delay by the Fadnavis government in appointing key members to the State Information Commission. The position of the chief information commissioner has been lying vacant since May. Not a single activist is currently part of the commission, only former bureaucrats are running the show. Shailesh Gandhi, one of the country’s foremost voices for RTI, had written to the CM, warning that if the situation didn’t improve, people would lose faith in the information mechanism. “I feel really gratified that legislator Sanjay Dutt took cognizance of my concerns and letters about RTI. I am very glad to note that the CM clearly expressed the view that these are exceptions and the RTI Act is serving a very useful function. The CM had earlier been apprised of these, but has now given categorical assurances. This is the first time that any chief minister has taken such a progressive stance on time bound disposal of appeals,” Gandhi said.