Fact Check:Has there been reduction in the number of RTI applications filed?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 16, 2019
Addressing the RTI
annual convention, Home Minister Amit Shah mentioned that it is the reduction
in the number of RTI applications and not the increase that shows the real
success of RTI. Here is a fact-check.
Union Minister of Home Affairs, AmitShah presided over the inaugural session of 14th Annual Convention of Central Information Commission as chiefguest. The Central
Information Commission (CIC) is the highest appeal body under the RTI Act. The session washeld on 12 October 2019 at New Delhi.
While addressing the gathering duringthe event, Amit Shah said that in 14 years of enactment of Right to Information(RTI) Act, the purpose and objective of the Act had been fulfilled. He alsostated that transparency and accountability were the twin pillars of goodgovernance and hailed RTI as a milestone for good governance.
Amit Shah, during his speech, claimedthat India is the first nation to have successfully created an accountabilitysystem till the last leg of governance. ‘India has nearly 5 lakh information
officers working to fulfil the writ of RTI at different levels of government,
and such a large number of officers working for the cause of transparency and
accountability is unseen elsewhere in the world’, claimed Amit Shah as pera press release by PressInformation Bureau. He further claimed that under the leadership of PM NarendraModi, the government was committed to create a system in which there is enough suo moto declaration of information thatthe need to file RTI applications is reduced. Shah said that the it is thereduction in RTI applications and not the increase in RTI applications thatshows the success of a transparent government even though the RTI process iscompletely accessible to people.
In this story, we fact check the HomeMinister’s claims made earlier this month. We look at the two broad claims made,one if there are 5 lakh information officers and two whether or not the numberof RTI applications has come down under the Modi government.
What is the number
of Public Information Officers?
Claim: India has 5 lakh   information officers at different levels till the last leg of governance and   no other country has such a large number of RTI officers.
Fact: At the central government level, there are more than 23000 public   information officers. In some of the bigger states, there are more than 50000   public information officers each at the state level. So overall, there would   easily be more than 5 lakh information officers at various levels of   governance involved in implementation of the RTI. Thus, the claim is True.
CIC annual reports contains details regarding the number of information officers currentlyworking in the various central government public authorities. As per the latest2017-18 annual report, there are more than 23000 public information officers at the central level. In some of thebigger states, there are more than 50000 public information officers each atthe state level. So overall, there would easily be more than 5 lakh informationofficers at various levels of governance involved in implementation of the RTI.Hence this claim is true.
What
about the number of RTI applications filed every year?
Claim: Modi government is committed to create a system where there is suo moto declaration of information so that need to file RTI applications is reduced.
Fact: Between 2014-2018, the number of RTI applications filed has gone up. There is no evidence to suggest that the number of RTI applications has reduced in the last 4 four years. Since we do not know about the number of applications in the future, the claim remains UNVERIFIED.
It is evident from the data provided in the annual report of CIC that the number of RTI requests have been increasing. From a mere 24,436 in 2005-06 when RTI Act was first passed in the parliament to 12 Lakh applications in 2017-18, the number of requests has increased. It has to be noted that the numbers mentioned in the annual report of the CIC pertain only to the public authorities under the central government. Millions of other applications under RTI are filed at the state and local levels.
The first term of the NDA government was from 2014 to 2019. Data from 2014-15 to 2017-18 suggests that the number of RTI requests has increased by 63%. The number of RTI applications filed was less than the preceding year only in 2016-17 during this period. Increase in the number of public authorities available on the ‘RTI Online’ portal could have also contributed to the increased number of RTI applications.
In addition to this, requests pendingfrom the previous years are carried forward to the current year. Under the government,from 2014-15 to 2016-17, every year around 22% of the requests are carriedforward. In 2015-16, 25% of cases from 2014-15 were brought forward. Similarly,22% of requests from 2015-16 were taken to 2016-17. In 2016-17, 23.5% ofrequests were pending and so were carried forward to 2017-18. Under the UPAgovernment, on an average, every year, only 16% of requests were left pendingfor the subsequent year between 2009-10 and 2013-14.
Thus, we can see that in the first term of Modi government, there has not been any decrease in the number of RTI applications indicating greater suo moto dissemination of information by the government which reduced the need for filing applications. Moreover, there have been complaints about the undue delay in the release of various reports such as the NCRB reports. Hence it cannot be said that there is a greater suo moto dissemination of information today leading to a reduction in the number of RTI applications.