Times of India: Mumbai: Saturday, May 05, 2018.
Citizens
moving applications under the Right to Information Act can hope to get their
queries addressed at the earliest as the new state chief information
commissioner (CIC), Sumit Mullick, has said officials delaying such information
would be fined.
Mullick, who
retired as chief secretary of Maharashtra on April 30, took charge on Thursday.
The post had been lying vacant after CIC Ratnakar Gaikwad’s term came to an end
on June 1, 2017.
Mullick said
the fine rule would result in better compliance by government officials.
Activists have been complaining for long that despite being part of the RTI
Act, the rule was not being implemented. “It is part of the Act and no official
can deny information to an applicant,” Mullick said.
With nearly
40,000 cases pending in the state, Mullick is keen to address the pendency
issue first and, then, fortify the online system of filing RTI applications and
ensuring that all departments put out the RTI complaints and replies on their
website. “A note will be issued to all departments,” said the new commissioner.
Mullick said
poor management of records by public authorities which the annual report of the
commission has pointed out was a cause for concern. “Maintaining records has
been an issue with all departments. Every department has to develop a mechanism
to ensure that all information is in place and with technology they can do so,”
Mullick added.
Former chief
information commissioner and RTI activist Shailesh Gandhi said, “It would be interesting
to see how all the pending cases are disposed of in a year. If the cases are
not addressed, it will make the RTI Act weak,’’ he pointed out. Pune, Amravati
and Nashik were lagging behind with nearly more than 7,000 cases, he added.
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