Document inspection facility not likely at Mantralaya

The Maharashtra government, which has decided to allow people to inspect official documents once a week at the district level, is not likely to offer the same facility at the state headquarters 'Mantralaya'.

Considering the number of people who visit Mantralaya every day, providing documents for inspection is not practically possible, a senior official said Thursday.

With a view to promote transparency, the General Administration Department (GAD) issued an order recently that people can inspect government records in district and local body offices under the Right to Information (RTI) Act for two hours every Monday.

There was a demand from RTI activists that this should be allowed at Mantralaya too, the official noted.

"But we can not implement it in Mantralaya because of space constraints," he said.

"Thousands of people visit Mantralaya on any given day. On special days, such as the day of cabinet meeting, the number goes up further. We can not manage such a huge crowd," he said.

"Also, Mantralaya has several departments and lakhs of documents. There will be overcrowding and chaos if all documents were to be thrown open for inspection," he said.