Enacted in the summer of 2005, the RTI Act has seen a dramatic rise in its users with Karnataka registering a 10-fold increase in just four years. Latest figures by the Karnataka Information Commission, the state RTI watchdog, shows that from 10,692 petitions (including appeals) in 2005-06, the numbers catapulted to 1,06,363 petitions in 2008-09. A whopping 56% of the requests for information were related to just 2 out of the 33 departments —urban development and revenue. Figures for 2009-10 are yet to be tabled in the state legislature.
"In just four years, more than 2.2 lakh petitions have been received by public offices in the state. Today, more than seeking information, the RTI Act has become a form of grievance redressal for the common man, and to fight corruption. In Karnataka, the act is being used not just by the urban educated class, but also the poor in rural areas," information commissioner H N Krishna told TOI.
The analysis of users in the state offers interesting insights into the departments which are the receiving end of civic activism. Though education (57,590 petitions) and rural development (6,066) have the highest number of public information officers, it is the urban development (27,679) and revenue department (23,587) which received the maximum number of petitions. Public enterprises department and the crucial infrastructure department received just three and five petitions respectively in 2008-09, exposing the skewed usage.
"Information on land and land records is what people ask the most. Most of the requests pertain to khata conversion, allotment of sites, land encroachment. In view of the large number of applications for seeking information, the high-level committee on effective implementation of the RTI Act has recommended lamination of revenue records and also digitise/microfilm important records in consultation with the e-governance department," a member of the committee said.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Mathang Seshagiri & Anil Kumar M
Quelle/Source: The Times of India, 23.03.2011
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