Telangana stands No 1 in RTI disposal

Hyderabad: Telangana State stood at number one position in the disposal of petitions filed under the Right To Information (RT) Act in the country. About 80 per cent of the petitions were addressed in the shortest possible time and no other state came close to TS, Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Raja Sadaram told The Hans India in an exclusive interview.

Sadaram, who demitted the office on Monday, said that he was happy that he happens to be the first CIC of Telangana. Sharing his experience as the CIC, he said that the Commission had received 18,000 applications which included 6,800 pending applications in the united Andhra Pradesh. About 14,000 applications were already disposed off and the remaining were at different stages for disposal.

Most of the applicants are knocking on the doors of the Information Commission after they were denied access to required information from the government institutions. Nearly 50 per cent grievances have come from people seeking information from Revenue, Panchayat Raj and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. He felt that the departments needs to be streamlined to ensure the free flow of information to the needy.

People with social concern were also approaching the commission to get the details of growing pollution levels, Haritha Haram, protection of water bodies from encroachment and other issues. It is a good sign that social awareness among citizens was increasing.

A facilitation desk has been created in the Commission to help advice the citizens about filing the second appeals. It is headed by a senior Judicial Officer. The citizens are making good use of the facility. With the facilitation desk, the citizens can file the appeals in accordance with the provisions of the RTI Act and Rules, he explained.

The Commission has also introduced the system of sending preliminary intimation soon after a second appeal is filed. This has proved to be quite useful because it is not only making the officials concerned aware of the fact of filing the second appeal and facilitating furnishing of sought information much before hearing.

The immense satisfaction he got during his entire career was in conducting the official proceedings for the ratification of AP Reorganisation Bill in the then united Andhra Assembly. Sadaram said he was humbled to be part of the formation of Telangana.