Rise in RTI applicants worries commission

[karira]

As reported in deccan.com on 01 September 2008:
City News

Rise in RTI applicants worries commission

Hyderabad, Aug. 31: The Information Commission is unable to cope with the large number of applications under the Right to Information Act with people increasingly seeking answers on a variety of issues. The commission received 1,051 applications between January and December last year against 313 in the 15 months between October 2005 and December 2006.

"There is a huge increase in the number of applications with regard to the functioning of particular offices. Given the presence of a large number of public information officers in the department, they should have been easily disposed," said Mr C.D. Arha, the Chief Information Commissioner at the AP Information Commission. As many as 278 cases were disposed of during the first year and 943 cases in the next fiscal.

In all, 925 applicants were supplied with information and 18 went without a reply. In the previous year, 246 applicants were provided with satisfactory information while 32 were turned away. The total number of applications pending this year is 143 against 35 last year. More than a quarter of the applications filed with the commission relate to land cases.

Statistics available with the AP commission reveal that out of 6,343 cases filed under the RTI Act, 1,763 were from appellants seeking information from the revenue department. "People in urban areas are waking up to the need of being equipped with information about the land they own. Quite a few are unaware of the actual land that they own," he said.