Wanted: 40,000 data churners

It’s almost a year since the Central Right to Information (RTI) Act came into existence, and the State Information Commission is finally planning to train 40,000 public information officers (PIOs) to cope with the flood of RTI applications. In a decisive step, it is also considering issuing orders in languages other than Marathi to make the act user-friendly.

Between September 2005 and August this year, the commission received 3,230 appeals and 520 complaints, out of which only 262 appeals and 15 complaints have been tackled. Stating that he needs four more information commissioners, Suresh Joshi, the state’s chief information commissioner, says, “On an average, I hear eight appeals a day, which is quite exhausting.”

Interestingly, PIOs are handling over 600 appeals from Mumbai, including 300 related to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). “Interest is high in civic issues like water, sanitation, road, education and building proposals,” says Joshi. Municipal Commissioner Johny Joseph agrees, saying, “We have over 100 PIOs and the workload is increasing at an enormous rate.”

Joshi also wants his PIOs to be accountable. “They (PIOs) must send us a monthly report on the nature of queries and how they are executed, which is not happening,” he says.

“Ideally, the PIOs must read the request for information within a few hours. If it is a mere case of copying the document, it should be dealt with quickly. The PIO’s efficiency is crucial in making RTI successful.”