Journalism of Courage
Even as the PMC strives to make the city a ‘smart’ one, its own website has been found failing to update regular information under Section 4 of the RTI Act.
Activists Vivek Velankar and Vishwas Sashrabuddhe pointed out that many departments of the civic body had not updated their information since 2012.
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Proactive disclosure of information under Section 4 of the RTI Act has been stressed upon time and again by the information commissioner as a means to reduce the load of RTI applications. Such information is supposed to be updated once a year.
Scrutiny of updates of 70 PMC departments shows that around 30 of them have failed to update their details. Offices of the deputy municipal commissioner, solid waste management, building permission, fire brigade, Bhavani Peth ward office and Nana Wada general records office are some of the offenders. The record office had last updated its information in 2011, while the building permission office did so in 2013. Similarly, the Chawl Superintendent’s office had last updated its information way back in 2013.
Velankar had complained to state Chief Information Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad about the sorry state of affairs two months back. Gaikwad had then issued stern strictures to the General Administrative Department (GAD). In January, the GAD issued a circular asking all government departments to take steps to publish such information on a timely basis.
