Indian Express: New Delhi: Saturday,
March 18, 2017.
The annual
report on Right To Information for 2015-16 said in 43 per cent cases of
information rejection, the reason was given as “other”, without explaining why
the central government department was withholding the data. The report,
compiled by the Central Information Commission (CIC) and released on Friday,
shows that among the top receivers of RTI queries are the Prime Minister’s
Office and the ministries of Home Affairs, Finance, Railways, Defence, Labour
and the DoPT the nodal department for
implementation of RTI Act).
According to
the report, in 2015-16, 9.76 lakh applications were received, which is 2.21
lakhs more than the RTI applications in 2014-15.
The report
says the public authorities rejected 6.62 per cent of the 9.76 lakh
applications that were processed during 2015-16. The percentage has come down
by 1.77 per cent than the previous year.
It states
that 47 per cent of rejections of information was under Section 8(1) of the
Act. The section lists under what circumstances the public authority shall be
under “no obligation to give any citizen” certain types of information.
According to
the report, in only two cases was administrative action taken against officials
with regard to administration of the transparency law.
The CIC has
reported that there was a decrease in the number of First Appeals received but
increase in the number disposed of by the first appellate authorities.
The report
said the CIC imposed penalties to the tune of Rs 10.52 lakh, of which Rs. 9.41
lakh was paid by the public information officers.
On the other
hand, penalties worth Rs. 1.25 lakh, imposed in various cases, have been stayed
by high courts.
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