Activist background helped me bring down pendency: Shailesh Gandhi

Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi told Rainmaker that the pain he felt as an activist helped him bring down the pendency of cases before him to ninety days.

"As an activist, one can point out flaws and faults in the functioning of the RTI and as a commissioner, you have a chance to make much more radical change", he said. He also said that even as an activist, he had reasonable clarity of what he thought the role of the Information Commission should be, and I have been critical of the Information Commission's role. One of the key faults he perceived was the slow disposal rate. "If we continued this, we would soon be rivaling the courts."

Shailesh Gandhi, a first generation entrepreneur, had sold his business in 2003 and had become active in spreading the word of right to information, first in Mumbai and then as part of the national movement from Delhi. "When I joined last September, I made an announcement that I would commit to limit my pendency to ninety days. I was given 2000 files when I joined and by April 2009, I had managed to reduce my pendency to ninety days. I was able to do this because I had felt the pain as an activist."

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News & Politics

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• Shailesh Gandhi
• RTI
• right to information