Maharashtra state information commission betters its performance

This is for your information citizens. The state information commission has disposed of more appeals and complaints in 2009 than it did in 2008. From 221 to 291, it has been a big leap of more than 30%.

The marked improvement can be attributed to an additional hand sharing the work load. In 2009, seven information commissioners, including the state chief information commissioner, worked to clear the appeals and complaints. In 2008, there had been a six-member team, including the chief.

“The figures state that our performance has been better than the central information commission,” state chief information commissioner Suresh Joshi said.

Joshi added that he was not happy with the implementation of section 4 of the right to information (RTI) Act, which deals with voluntary disclosure of information.

“The disclosure is not adequate. They need to put a lot more information on the website. The quality and quantity needs to improve drastically. Emphasis should be given on record management,” he said.

RTI activist Bhaskar Prabhu said, “The state commission can improve its performance further. And for a state like Maharashtra, the figures need to improve. Merely giving orders is not adequate. The orders should be given on time. I myself have an order pending since March last year. Also, not always the orders passed by the information commission are justifiable.”

Although the complete figures are not available, the state commission said that total appeals in 2009 stood at 4.5 lakh. In 2008, the figure had been 4.6 lakh.