Pune: Nearly 75,000 Rights to Information (RTI) Appeal and complaints are waiting in Maharashtra because the government has not yet appointed Commissioners for Nashik, Pune, Nagpur and Amravati, activists said.
In accordance with the data on the State Information Commission website, the number of pending complaints and the second appeal has been more than 74,240 for eight benches until May this year.
Activists appealed to the government to implement action in letters and spirits.
According to data, 63,045 waited for the delayed appeal had been uploaded on the website where Pune bench had the biggest lawa 16,961, followed by Aurangabad with 10,919.
Overall 11,195 complaints were waiting, with the Mumbai bench that registered the suffering of 1,768 complaints.
Former Chief of Information Commissioner (CIC) Shailesh Gandhi, also a RTI activist, said that RTI seemed to only be an action on paper with almost no implementation due to a very large domanian in the state.
“We hope the commission to develop a plan that shows how with 11 commissioners can meet the direction of the High Court within two years,” Gandhi said.
“If they are not given adequate resources, they must demand this from the government.
Responsibility to meet legal directives is with them.” While the Commissioner Post Information Commissioner (IC) in Nashik has been empty since February 2019, Pune does not have IC since November 2018, and Nagpur since June 2018.
With a retirement recently from Commissioner Amravati, another post has fallen blankly.
Unlike other states, post ICs in Maharashtra have been made according to the geographical zone.
Thus, post IC has been made for Mumbai, BrihanMumbai, KONKAN, Nashik, Amaravati, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad.
The state of CIC Sumit Mullick told TII that officials tried to hear as many online and offline cases as possible.
“Until now, we only have four information commissioners and if all 11 posts needed are filled, we must be able to speed up hearing cases.
More cases are submitted every day, so clearly increases,” he added.
The source in the state government said that they had invited applications to post ICs, but changes to several rules have delayed promises.
The search committee is expected to choose the names and send it to the Minister’s Chief Committee for the appointment, according to the norm.