RTI activists demand panel to monitor disclosure of info

Around nine city-based RTI activists on Thursday met Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and demanded a slew of measures to improve the functioning of the RTI Act.

Headed by former police commissioner Julio Rebeiro, the delegation included Public Concern for Governance Trust trustee Narayan Varma, Bhaskar Prabhu, Krishnaraj Rao, Chetan Kothari, and Anil Galgali among other activists.

Stating that the meeting with the chief minister was necessitated by the recent amendments in the RTI rules by the state, Varma said, “We have asked them to withdraw the amendments as they are not poor-friendly.” The amendments include application on single subject matter limited by 150 word-count.

Further, the activists have demanded the formation of a panel of civil society members along with senior bureaucrats to monitor the Section 4 of the RTI Act.

“The CM was very positive about it,” added Varma. Section 4 talks about the voluntary disclosure of information by the government. Other demands include appointment of information commissioners for processing of the over 22,000 second appeals lying with the information commission currently.

However, the CM has said the appointment of commissioners is a problem due to lack of good contenders for the most and shortage of IAS officers, added Varma.

When contacted, Vinayak Nikam, an officer at Varsha said Chavan was busy in a meeting and would get back.