Times of India: New Delhi: Thursday, August 30, 2018.
The Prime Minister's Office received
over 12,500 RTI applications during 2016-17, highest since 2012, according to
an official data.
There has also been an increase in
number of appeals filed by citizens, aggrieved over initial response to their
applications from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), it said.
A total of 12,787 applications were
filed with the PMO in 2016-17 as against 11,138 in 2015-16 and 12,674 during
2014-15. As many as 7,077 such queries were raised in 2013-14 and 5,828 during
2012-13, the PMO said in response to the RTI query filed by a PTI
correspondent.
The PMO was asked to provide details
of RTI applications and appeals received by it and also those rejected by it
between 2013 and 2018.
A total of 1,306 RTI applications were
rejected during 2016-17 as against 2,234 and 2,795 in 2015-16 and 2014-15
respectively. As many as 1,450 such queries were rejected in 2013-14 and 1,130
in 2012-13, according to the data.
"It is stated that the rejection
of applications is done as per provisions prescribed in the Right to
Information Act," the PMO said.
The RTI Act allows Indian citizens to
seek governance-related information from government departments in a time-bound
manner. The Act has provisions to raise appeal in case the applicant is not
satisfied with the response provided by the government department concerned.
As many as 1,592 appeals were received
by the PMO during 2016-17, 1,478 in 2015-16, 1,306 during 2014-15, 701 in
2013-14 and 632 in 2012-13. Of these, 1,098 appeals were rejected in 2016-17,
1,155 in 2015-16, 1,035 during 2014-15, 506 and 493 in 2013-14 and 2012-13
respectively, the PMO said.
"It is stated that appeals filed
with this office under the RTI Act are decided on merit of each individual
case," it said.
The PMO, however, refused to share
total number of RTI applications and appeals pending disposal, saying the
"compilation of information will disproportionately divert the public
resources".