45 appeals disposed of on Day 1 of special four-day RTI event……Prajakta Chavan
Even as the chief state information commission (CSIC) boasted of a successful first Special Appeal Disposal Programme, the appellants gave mixed reactions.
The four-day event organised by chief state information commissioner Vijay Kuvalekar kicked off at Podar Medical College (Ayurved), Worli, on Tuesday with 63 appeals scheduled on Day one.
The event aimed at disposing of piled up Right To Information (RTI) applications at CSIC since 2008. Around 18,677 appeals across the state are pending.
Forty-five of the 63 appeals scheduled for the first day were disposed of in the three-hour session. Nine out of the 18 appeals are pending as appellant sought a second hearing and in others neither of the participants appellant, public information officer (PIO) or first appellate authority (FAA) was present.
The statistics indicate that overall response to the program was good. Some participants appreciated the attempt, said Kuvalekar.
However, petitioners gave varied reactions, since in some cases PIO and FAA were not present, while some authorities appeared but without sufficient documents.
I am disappointed with the whole exercise as neither PIO or FAA in my appeal were present in the program. The state commission should ensure all the concerned authorities are present when they organise such mass events, said Ajay Marathe, 54, resident of Vashi and chemical engineer.
Prashant Vikey, 36, and Vilas Salve, 29, had sought information from the civic building proposal department, Mulund T ward. Though the authorities were present in this case, they didnt bring the required documents. The authorities asked me to visit the ward office for the information, then whats the use of this mass disposal assembly? We wasted our time by coming here, said Vikey, a Mulund resident and external relationship officer in a multi-national company.
On the other hand, Chembur resident Narendra Sawant returned happy as one of his four appeals was answered. I got a convincing reply from the PIO and FAA. This experiment is helping to reduce the communication gap between the petitioner and authorities, said Sawant, 40, a businessman.
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