Chavan says RTI has slowed down decision-making

Mumbai: The advent of RTI Act has slowed down the decision making process but given a fresh impetus to transparency in governance, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithiviraj Chavan said today."Everybody has become extremely cautious (because of introduction of RTI Act). Decision-making has slowed down, there is no doubt about that. In that transition period we are moving towards much more transparent governance," he said while speaking on "The new role of the states: Catalysts for growth" at the India Economic Summit organised by World Economic Forum and CII.[caption id="attachment_130755" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="AFP"][/caption]Noting that the issues of scams or corruption being talked about in the media now had not happened last year, or its previous year or year before that, Chavan said, "It happened in an environment that decision makers thought their decision will never be seen by the public."Suddenly we have a situation that the rug has been pulled from under the feet and what you had decided 10-15 years back is coming to light and it is appearing that some laws have been broken," he said, explaining the reason for the "extreme caution" that had dragged down the process of decision-making.On growing preference of the industry for Gujarat, the chief minister said some projects did go to the neighbouring state and that he never insisted that all industrial investment should come to Maharashtra alone."There is huge competition among states which is good,"he said, adding, "We are completely open to adopting an initiative that has worked even in BJP-ruled states."PTI