Information chief wants state to limit Right to Information pleas

MUMBAI: At a time when there is intense debate on changes introduced by the state government to the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the state information commission has recommended curbs on the number of appeals a person can file.

Arguing that multiple appeals and applications filed by the same individuals were hampering disposal of the RTI appeals and delaying discharge of information, acting state information commissioner Bhaskar Patil has asked the government to frame rules to limit the number of appeals a person was eligible to.

Referring to complaints of a rise in RTI applications that had nothing to do with public interest, Patil has further recommended that public information officers of various government and semi-government departments could be asked to ascertain that the information sought is in public domain before furnishing a reply.

The recommendations form part of a report on the commission's performance in 2011, which was placed before the state legislature.

The report suggests that such multiple appeals is one of the reasons for pendency of disposals. At the end of 2011, about 1.07 lakh appeals were pending disposal. According to the report, the state information commission received 6.45 lakh applications. About 69,943 others were pending from last year.

The commission has said that it has received and has verified complaints that the same set of individuals were filing multiple applications and appeals on the same subject. Justifying both the recommendations, it has said that multiple applications and appeals also impact applications filed by others.

'Vacancies, funding plague panel'

MUMBAI: The RTI commission has said the high vacancy rate and lack of sufficient funding for the commission was impacting its pace of work.The report on the commission has blamed a 35% vacancy in posts as the prime reason for pendency of 1.07 lakh cases. Out of 136 sanctioned posts, about 47 are vacant, the commission's report claims. Posts of three information commissioners, areyet to be filled up. It has also claimed that the budgetary support granted to the commission is insufficient.