A day ahead of the swearing-in of the first-ever BJP government in Maharashtra, Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao has ordered the withdrawal of the controversial notification issued by the Congress-NCP government taking the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) out of the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The decision of the previous government, made days before the Election Commission’s announcement of the State Assembly election schedule, was not put on the ACB website. Last week, RTI activists stumbled on the notification and threatened to challenge it in court.
“The Governor took the decision to withdraw the notification issued by the State Government on 6th September 2014 after considering representations from various RTI activists and taking cognizance of newspaper reports which reflected the view that the notification was in violation of the RTI Act,” a press release issued by the Governor’s office said. “The Governor also got the issue legally examined before taking the decision to withdraw the notification,” it said.
The controversial notification was issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) under the charge of the then Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan just six days before the model code of conduct came into force. It drew flak from RTI activists as the anti-corruption body was awaiting sanction from the government to commence an open inquiry against the former Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and another senior NCP leader Sunil Tatkare in the alleged multi-crore irrigation scam.
What has shocked activists is that though the notification was issued on September 6, it was put up on the website of ACB only in the second week of October.
Welcoming the Governor's intervention, RTI activist Pravin Wategaonkar, on whose complaint the ACB wants to conduct an open inquiry into the irrigation scam, told The Hindu that the move was in the right direction as the notification was illegal.
“The Prithviraj Chavan government, by passing such a notification, had acted contrary to the interest of the public and tried to shield corrupt politicians. The Governor, by withdrawing it, has sent a positive signal,” he said.
