Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
The State Information Commission (SIC), Mumbai headquarters, has strongly criticised the Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation (Maharail) for failing to respond to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by former Minister of State and ex-MLA Dr Avinash Warjukar.
The SIC Rahul Pande has directed Maharail to provide complete information within a fixed time and has expressed serious concern over the way RTI applications are being handled by the corporation.
Dr Warjukar had filed RTI applications on February 15, 2024 and again on January 23, 2025, seeking information on 12 points related to the formation of Maharail, appointment of its Managing Director, approvals of works and the scope of development projects undertaken by the corporation. As he did not receive any reply within the stipulated time, he filed a first appeal on February 25, 2025. When no hearing was held on that appeal either, he approached the State Information Commission with a second appeal.
During the hearing held on October 14, 2025, Dr Warjukar alleged that when he personally followed up, Maharail officials told him that the RTI Act was not applicable to the corporation. SIC Pande termed this allegation serious and noted with regret that Maharail had failed to submit a report sought earlier by the Commission on August 14, 2025.
At the hearing, the current Public Information Officer Vineet Toke and First Appellate Authority Abhibhrat Das admitted that the RTI Act is applicable to Maharail and expressed regret if any official had conveyed otherwise. The Commission observed that most of the information sought by the appellant falls under mandatory suo motu disclosure under Section 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act and should already have been available on the Maharail website.
The Commission partially allowed the appeal and directed Maharail to provide all available information related to points 1 to 12 free of cost within two weeks. It also asked the corporation to submit RTI application registers to the Commission for scrutiny.
Contractual officers handling RTI creating confusion
Taking serious note of lapses, the SIC said confusion arising due to contractual officers handling RTI matters cannot be an excuse. It asked the General Administration Department to issue clear guidelines and stressed that Maharail’s Director must ensure strict compliance with the RTI Act in future.
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