PTI; Monday, April 25, 2011,
More than 5.48 lakh applications were received under the Right to Information (RTI) Act in Maharashtra in year 2010 with a rise in the instances of seeking vague information in comprehensive manner, according to a State Information Commission (SIC) report.
The 5th annual report of the SIC says, 5,48,987 applications were received by it in year 2010 under RTI compared to 4,40,727 in 2009, 4,16,090 in 2008,3,16,000 in 2007 and 1,23,000 in 2006.
Maximum queries were related to urban development which received 1,51,963 applications. Out of 5,48,987 petitions received in total, 5,43,526 have been disposed of, the report said.
The SIC received fees to the tune of Rs 1,30,61,689 in return of the information sought by the applicants last year.
Out of the 5,43,526 persons who were provided with the information, 14,799 were from Below Poverty Line (BPL) and were availed RTI services free of cost.
The report also pointed out that the Right to Information Act has become an important human right tool and is not restricted only to administrative reforms.
Stating that 27% of total posts in the State Information Commission are lying vacant, the report says that the SIC did not receive fixed annual grants allocated to it.
The SIC has also suggested that the official records be sorted out and registered accordingly in the government offices.
Similarly, if any record or document is not found or has gone missing, provisions of theMaharashtra Public Records Act 2005 be invoked to punish the concerned officials, the report said.
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