AHMEDABAD: While there has been a decline in the number of complaints and appeals under the Right to Information (RTI) Act in most departments of the state government, only two departments registered an increase in the number of appeals and complaints in 2019-20 as compared to the previous year 2018-19. They are the agriculture and co-operation and the labour and employment departments.
All other departments of the state government registered a dip in RTI complaints and appeals in the year 2019-20, a report of the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC), which was tabled in the state assembly earlier this year, said.
Section 18 of the RTI act permits citizens to file complaints with the state information commission regarding information. Citizens can file appeals either in departments concerned or with the commission, under Section19 of the RTI act.
The sharpest decline (52%) in RTI complaints and appeals was in the information and broadcasting department, official figures reveal. In 2019-20 there were 122 complaints as compared to 25 in the previous year. This was followed by a 48% dip in complaints in the ports and transport department and a 42% decline in complaints and appeals in the food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department.
RTI activists say that in the first place, a decrease in appeals and complaints is not desirable at all. However, an increase of complaints in the labour and agriculture departments reflects the fact that common peoples’ problems are not being solved effectively. “There has been an increase in denial of information, which should ideally reflect in an addition of complaints and appeals in the commission. The agriculture and labour departments are directly connected with common people,” said Pankti Jog, executive secretary, Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel.
