Now you can seek info from MahaOnline under RTI

MahaOnline, a state government initiative that provides a digital platform to citizens to apply for services like land records, domicile certificates and ration cards must share information under RTI, the state information commission has said.

Stressing that MOL is a public authority, the info commission asked it to appoint a public information officer and first appellate authority. The move will allow citizens to seek information directly from MOL instead of approaching various government departments.

The order by SIC Sunil Porwal came on a complaint from Jeetendra Ghadge. The Girgaon resident said MOL asked him to approach the Directorate of Information Technology at Mantralaya after he sought certain information. On one application, the Directorate asked Ghadge to collect the info from MOL.

Citing the rules of the law and judiciary department, MOL said it doesn't come under the purview of the Right to Information Act. It also said that being public-private partnership, RTI does not apply to it.

The commission observed that MOL was established by the state for government work. Hence it is wrong to say that the Act does not apply to it, said the commission. As per Section 2 (h) (d) of the RTI Act, one is a public authority if established or constituted by a notification or order made by an appropriate government.

A joint venture of Maharashtra government and Tata Consultancy Services, MOL helps about 75,000 citizens take benefit of several online services every day. With MOL coming under the transparency Act, projects such as 'Online Recruitment', 'Online Lottery', 'Online Tickets for National Parks' and many other services will now be covered by RTI.

"It is surprising that they considered not to be under RTI for so many years. Almost all state government work is done by them. There will be better transparency with this order," said Ghadge.