It is certain now, that, the Maharashtra Right to Information Act (MRTI), 2002 will be repealed by the state government to make way for the Right to Information Act, 2005, passed by the Parliament. The central bill received assent from the President of India on June 15. It will become fully operational 120 days from the date of the assent—that is, from October 13.
The Maharashtra government is expected to promulgate an ordinance sometime in October repealing the MRTI Act from the midnight of October 12-13 and place it for ratification of the legislature during the winter session in Nagpur. Until then, citizens can go ahead and continue requisitioning information under the MRTI Act.
It is hoped that the ordinance repealing the Act will protect all actions already initiated. The central law will apply to all departments and agencies of both the Government of India and the Maharashtra Government. As such, citizens will now be able to start requisitioning information from central government agencies like nationalised banks, petroleum corporations and even research organisations.
For state government departments and agencies, the present network of Public Information Officers (PIOs) already built up for the MRTI Act will remain undisturbed. The PIOs will start accepting requisitions under the RTI Act of 2005. Rules prescribing procedure for demanding information are yet to be framed. The exercise is on, both at the central as well as the state government levels.
Right To Information (RTI) campaigners are keeping a watch particularly on the cost of information that will be prescribed under these rules. Those in Maharashtra do not want the rates to go up from the present 50 paise per page for photocopying of documents. Yet, higher rates cannot be ruled out for central government departments and agencies. Information will be available free of charge to citizens below poverty line.
Then, the cost of taking samples and that of inspecting documents also has to be worked out. These are the new aspects under the central law. Citizens will now be able to demand samples of civil work and other material and get that independently inspected for contents. Hence, the cost has to be reasonable.
Citizens will be able to give a notice to an office and then go there on a pre-designated date to inspect documents. The fee usually is linked to the number of hours spent in the office for inspection. This has not yet been worked out and RTI campaigners want this to be affordable.
The second appeal under the central law will go to a high-power information commission instead of an unwilling Lokayukta as at present under the Maharashtra Act. Decisions of the commission will be binding on the administration.
A panel comprising the chief minister, a minister nominated by him and the leader of the opposition will select the chief information commissioner and a maximum of ten information commissioners under him. The process has not begun yet, but in any case, at least the state chief information commissioner has to be in saddle on October 13.
Who can be the information commissioners? The RTI Act, 2005, provides that the commissioners will be drawn from among ‘‘persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance.’’ They will not be members of Parliament or Legislature or ‘‘hold any other office of profit or connected with any political party or carrying on any business or pursuing any profession.’’
The state chief information commissioner will be equivalent to the election commissioner in terms of salary and allowance, whereas the information commissioners under him will be equivalent to the chief secretary to the state government.
It is expected that in addition to a chief information commissioner at Mumbai, eventually at least three commissioners will be appointed to look after two revenue divisions each. They are expected to be stationed at Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. Perhaps the state government may also go ahead and appoint six information commissioners - one for each revenue division.
The chief information commissioner of Government of India will be equivalent to the chief election commissioners. There will be a maximum of 10 information commissioners under him, each equivalent to the election commissioners.
It is presumed that one of the information commissioners will surely be stationed at Mumbai to decide second appeals generated within Maharashtra and maybe other neighbouring states in case of requisitions for information with central government departments and their agencies.
pmkardaley@expressindia.com