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(By Pritam Nachankar, Mumbai)
Mumbai – It has come to light that in order to prevent corruption in Government departments from being exposed, officials in various Government departments across the State are trying to suppress information by ignoring the ‘Right to Information Act’. Committees have been formed in the legislature to investigate cases of corruption in Government operations; however, it has also been revealed that inquiry reports have not been disclosed to hide corruption matters. Currently, there are hundreds of pending cases in the State where inquiry reports have not been submitted despite the formation of inquiry committees.
To ensure transparency in Government operations, the Right to Information Act – Section 4 (1) mandates that all Government departments, corporations, establishments, etc., should voluntarily provide information about their operations on their websites. However, in practice, despite the enactment of the RTI Act in Maharashtra, many public authorities and corporations have not uploaded their information on their websites. All the annual reports of the State Information Commission are available on their website. In these reports, the Commission has repeatedly noted that ‘the Government should take the concerned matter seriously’, but no serious action has been taken by any of the ruling Governments in this regard.
Only committees have been set up but where are the reports ?
Subject | Inquiry Committee set up in | Report pending since |
Issue of 64 education institutes in the State showing bogus names as students and grabbed Rs 1826 as scholarship | 2019 | 5 years |
Issue of a few medical officers from Orthopaedic Dept of Sassoon Hospital issuing fake ‘handicapped’ certificates | June 2022 | 2 years |
Passing of Law against ‘cut practice’ in medical field |
Committee set up to prepare the draft of the Act on 28thJuly 2017 | 8 years |
Reports from committees formed to investigate such cases have been suppressed under the regimes of various ruling parties. Information about this, is available with daily ‘Sanatan Prabhat’.
Thousands of appeals received by the State Information Commission (SIC)
Month |
Repeat appeals filed due to inadequate information in 1 st appeal |
March | 3,722 |
April | 5,152 |
May | 4,808 |
June | 4,324 |
July | 5,158 |
Total pending second appeals received before March and during March to July | 82,981 |
Sanatan Prabhat Exclusive : Corruption within Maharashtra’s Government departments is being deliberately hidden
Right to Information is being ignored. Hundreds of inquiry reports are being suppressed, fueling corruption.
Information Commission recommends taking action against… pic.twitter.com/fg4IzVFRiU
— Sanatan Prabhat (@SanatanPrabhat) August 29, 2024
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