Fed up with government offices not implementing two government resolutions (GRs) regarding access to government data passed by the State, Right to Information (RTI) activists from the city are set to write to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
The letter will be signed by over a thousand RTI activists from the city, and the signatures will be collated by the Public Concern for Government Trust.
In 2015, the government had passed a resolution asking for applications and responses to be uploaded on the internet. Last year, on November 26, the government allowed citizens to access data they wanted to study at government offices on Monday afternoon. However, the information is not uploaded online and activists from the city say they are stonewalled on Mondays.
“Every time activists go asking for information, they are denied under some or the other pretext. Some employees say they have not received the GR and some claim they don’t have papers. Officials often are not in the office during the given time. When the government has passed the resolution, it also needs to look into its smooth implementation,” Gaurang Vora, an RTI activist, said.
Apart from sending the letter to the Chief Minister, the delegation of activists will also seek an appointment with Mr. Fadnavis later this month to explain the hurdles they face.
Former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, who is one of the signatories, said, “Our stand is clear that these two government resolutions will enhance transparency. We want the government to follow what it says. With its implementation, the number of RTI applications will gradually decrease, useless RTI applications will stop coming in and it will also reduce the occurrence of public information officers sending vague and absurd responses to filed applications.”
Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Ribeiro, who is also a signatory, called for ending the bureaucratic lethargy over the implementation. “In my conversation with a person from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, he said that sometimes the papers asked for are not easily available and that they don’t always find the papers on time. We don’t want to fight with them. We want to get it done. The public deserves to know the information that they are looking for,” he said.
Apart from smoothening the process of access to information, the November 2018 decision is also expected to help check the rising number of pending appeals with the Maharashtra State Information Commission from applicants against departments denying or withholding information. By the end of September 2018, as many as 39,709 appeals and complaints were pending since 2014.
As per the GR, in case of a public holiday on Monday, information can be accessed on the next working day.
