Aurangabad: Former Central Information Commissioner (CIC) Shailesh Gandhi has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis seeking that the Commission for Right to Service Act functions effectively. Otherwise, he writes, this much discussed legislation would be nothing more than a fraud on the people of the state. He pointed out that less than 500 services have so far been notified, even though at least 20,000 ought to have been.“In May 2017, I represented to the Chief Commissioner that most of the services were not being covered in this Act since almost every department was only notifying a small number of services. This was resulting in surreptitiously defeating your laudable objective to ensure corruption-free, time-bound delivery of services to citizens,” Gandhi wrote.Gandhi said Chief Commissioner Swadheen Kshatriya issued his recommendations in January 2018 to the state chief secretary seeking that all services provided by state authorities be listed in a master list within three months. He also asked that a timeframe be set by which these would be notified. That order was treated with contempt, the former CIC says, explaining that less than 500 services were listed.Maharashtra Government launched the RTS Act in 2015, a legislation touted as a personal commitment from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to guarantee the people of the state that government services are provided in a time-bound and efficient manner.Gandhi cited the example of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai also known as Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). “As I had pointed out to the RTS Commissioner, BMC provides 67 services. There are nearly 200 such bodies counting Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats. These would have to notify over 10,000 services. The same principle would apply to all government departments at different levels. Thus, the total number of services to be listed is likely to be much over 20,000 at the least. In three years, however less than 500 have been notified,” Gandhi writes, adding that it would take over a century to notify all services, at this pace.Gandhi said only 118 appeals had been made before the RTS Commissioner from March 2017 to May 2018, citing this as proof of the ineffectiveness of the RTS Act. Kshatriya could not be reached for his comments on this matter. An email to the RTS commission remained unanswered till Wednesday night.

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