Hyderabad: The Telangana State Information Commission (TSIC) said that it had disposed of a record number of RTI applications in the calendar year 2021.
According to the data released by TSIC Chief Information Commissioner (full additional charge) Buddha Murali on Thursday, the commission has disposed of 8,413 applications between January and December, while it had received 6,792 appeals over the same period. The cleared applications include those that were pending from previous years.
He said the commission has disposed of pending appeals faster when compared with previous years.
After bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the TSIC did not work for three years as there was a delay in constituting the commission for the new state of Telangana which resulted in the mounting of pending applications.
The TSIC was constituted in September 2017. The commission gave priority to clear pending applications expeditiously.
The state government first appointed the Chief Information Commissioner and an Information Commissioner initially soon after the formation of TSIC in 2017. Later, five more Information Commissioners were appointed in February 2020.
Following the retirement of Chief Information Commissioner Raja Sadaram in August 2020, the commission is now working with Buddha Murali as CIC (FAC) and five Information Commissioners. The commission could dispose of more applications than it had received in 2021 due to the clearing of pending applications of previous years.
The commission has 10,000 pending applications. Each commissioner has a pendency of about 1,500 applications on average. Efforts are being made to clear all the pending applications in the next six months.
Murali said that the commission is leveraging technology for the speedy disposal of applications. The commission conducted hearings on applications through teleconferencing during Covid lockdowns.
The commission is making efforts to enable people even from rural areas to file applications directly with information officers concerned in online mode. At present, the applicants have the provision to file applications online with the commission.
Murali said the commission wants to extend this facility to information officers-level and has been making efforts in this regard.
