Hyderabad, March 27: The annual report of the AP Information Commission, submitted to the State Government on Friday, brought to light some interesting facts. In 2009 alone, a staggering 65,973 applications were filed under the Right to Information Act seeking information from government departments — six times more than the 8,864 filed in 2006, the year in which the commission was set up.
The Revenue Department received the most number of applications at 27,442 and many of them were regarding land records and government revenue. However, the rise in the number of applications was accompanied by a corresponding increase in the number of appeals and complaints.
The Commission received 13,151 appeals and complaints during 2009. They are made when applicants are either denied information or provided with insufficient information.
Significantly, appeals from the rural public went up by 11 per cent from 2006 to 42 per cent in 2009. Information Commissioner R Dileep Reddy attributed the sharp rise to increased awareness about the RTI Act among the rural population.
However, during the same period, the media and political parties did not seem to have much to complain about. Of the total number of complaints/ appeals, the media’s share was just about 6.79 per cent while that of the political parties was 0.21 per cent. The general public made 89.32 per cent appeals against 2.51 per cent by non-government organisations.
1.71 per cent of the appeals were made over service matters.
The Commission’s annual report was submitted on time for the fourth consecutive year, something that not many States can boast of. Chief Information Officer CD Arha and Information Commissioners Ambaty Subba Rao and R Dileep Reddy submitted the report to Chief Minister K Rosaiah.
Department-wise, following the revenue were Municipal Administration and Urban Development both of which received 8,060 applications.
The Panchayat Raj and Rural Development departments received 5,005 applications and the School Education department got 2,908 applications.
According to the report, about 67,021 applications, including 9,831 pending cases of 2008, were disposed of in 2009. Information was provided in 64,016 cases while 3,005 were rejected due to various restrictions.
The Information Commission issued show-cause notices in 444 cases, warnings in 31, ordered inquires in 11, imposed penalties in 13 and recommended disciplinary action in three cases.
Training programmes for Public Information Officers and Appellate Authorities came down from 491 in 2008 to 139 in 2009.
–Agencies