Delhi leads in RTI applications; Goa last in filing New Delhi, June 22: The national capital leads the country in terms of applications moved under the Right To Information (RTI), with an overwhelming 35,250 petitions being made in Delhi in the last three years.
On the other extreme is Goa, where only 811 RTI applications have been made in the same period, according to official statistics. As many as 10,887 RTI applications were filed in Karnataka while Kerala recorded 6,895 petitions and Orissa 4,187. Uttar Pradesh witnessed 4,105 applications being made, while 2,255 RTI pleas were submitted in Tamil Nadu. In Maharashtra, 1,993 RTI applications were filed while 1,288 in Rajasthan, 1,223 in Puducherry and 897 in Uttarakhand, showing that the landmark law is still to reach the grassroots level due to lack of awareness. The statistics were made available in a reply to an RTI application. "We had filed RTI applications with different departments in different states as we wanted to know to what extent RTI Act has been exercised in each state and were people aware of it?" said Neeraj Kumar, a member of Kabir, an NGO. He complained that various departments in many states were reluctant to reply to the RTI application and they have now moved the same request with the first appellate authority -the Public Information Officer of the department concerned. In many cases applicants have approached the State Information Commission or the second appellate authority. Bureau Report http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=450364&sid=REG ~(^^)~ Avelino
