Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
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    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
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<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
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		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength&#039;,
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&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;../empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/siteadmin/tinymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&lt;/a&gt;  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;
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India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin&lt;br /&gt;ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt&lt;br /&gt;i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-&lt;br /&gt;their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229&lt;br /&gt;72.html&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r&lt;br /&gt;oad-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir&lt;br /&gt;es-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot; title=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;../empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/siteadmin/tinymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&lt;/a&gt;  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;
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India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin&lt;br /&gt;ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt&lt;br /&gt;i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-&lt;br /&gt;their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229&lt;br /&gt;72.html&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r&lt;br /&gt;oad-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir&lt;br /&gt;es-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot; title=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength</strong></h1>
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                <br /><div align="justify">India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. </div><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify">An assessment of the <a href="https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2" title="https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2">RTI law</a> in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) </p><p align="justify">The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.</p><p align="justify">The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. </p><p align="justify">Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. </p><p align="justify">Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.</p><p align="justify">The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). </p><p align="justify"><strong><em>References: </em></strong></p><p align="justify">The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), <a href="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf" title="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf">http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin<br />ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf </a></p><p align="justify">8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, <a href="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html" title="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt<br />i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html</a> </p><p align="justify">40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, <a href="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html" title="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-<br />their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229<br />72.html</a>  </p><p align="justify">Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, <a href="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html" title="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r<br />oad-to-land-rights-22517.html</a> </p><p align="justify">Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, <a href="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html" title="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir<br />es-citizen-protest-22264.html</a></p><p align="justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: </strong></p><p align="justify"><strong><a href="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg" title="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg">http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg</a> </strong></p>               </font>
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    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
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		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength&#039;,
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		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;../empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/siteadmin/tinymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&lt;/a&gt;  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;
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India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin&lt;br /&gt;ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt&lt;br /&gt;i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-&lt;br /&gt;their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229&lt;br /&gt;72.html&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r&lt;br /&gt;oad-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir&lt;br /&gt;es-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot; title=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;../empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/siteadmin/tinymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&lt;/a&gt;  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;
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India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin&lt;br /&gt;ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt&lt;br /&gt;i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-&lt;br /&gt;their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229&lt;br /&gt;72.html&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r&lt;br /&gt;oad-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir&lt;br /&gt;es-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot; title=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength</strong></h1>
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                <br /><div align="justify">India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. </div><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify">An assessment of the <a href="https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2" title="https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2">RTI law</a> in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) </p><p align="justify">The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.</p><p align="justify">The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. </p><p align="justify">Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. </p><p align="justify">Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.</p><p align="justify">The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). </p><p align="justify"><strong><em>References: </em></strong></p><p align="justify">The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), <a href="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf" title="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf">http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin<br />ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf </a></p><p align="justify">8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, <a href="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html" title="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt<br />i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html</a> </p><p align="justify">40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, <a href="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html" title="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-<br />their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229<br />72.html</a>  </p><p align="justify">Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, <a href="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html" title="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r<br />oad-to-land-rights-22517.html</a> </p><p align="justify">Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, <a href="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html" title="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir<br />es-citizen-protest-22264.html</a></p><p align="justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: </strong></p><p align="justify"><strong><a href="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg" title="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg">http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg</a> </strong></p>               </font>
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    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
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</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f64199ddcfe-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
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&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;../empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/siteadmin/tinymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&lt;/a&gt;  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;
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India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin&lt;br /&gt;ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt&lt;br /&gt;i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-&lt;br /&gt;their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229&lt;br /&gt;72.html&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r&lt;br /&gt;oad-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir&lt;br /&gt;es-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot; title=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;../empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/siteadmin/tinymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;../latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&lt;/a&gt;  
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; 
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;../news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;
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$metaTitle = &#039;NEWS ALERTS | Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength&#039;
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India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;India&#039;s landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It&#039;s anybody&#039;s guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;An assessment of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2&quot;&gt;RTI law&lt;/a&gt; in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;References: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin&lt;br /&gt;ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt&lt;br /&gt;i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-&lt;br /&gt;their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229&lt;br /&gt;72.html&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r&lt;br /&gt;oad-to-land-rights-22517.html&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, &lt;a href=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot; title=&quot;https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html&quot;&gt;http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir&lt;br /&gt;es-citizen-protest-22264.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Image Courtesy: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot; title=&quot;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&quot;&gt;http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength</strong></h1>
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                <br /><div align="justify">India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. </div><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify">An assessment of the <a href="https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2" title="https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2">RTI law</a> in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) </p><p align="justify">The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.</p><p align="justify">The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. </p><p align="justify">Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. </p><p align="justify">Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.</p><p align="justify">The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). </p><p align="justify"><strong><em>References: </em></strong></p><p align="justify">The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), <a href="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf" title="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf">http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin<br />ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf </a></p><p align="justify">8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, <a href="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html" title="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt<br />i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html</a> </p><p align="justify">40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, <a href="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html" title="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-<br />their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229<br />72.html</a>  </p><p align="justify">Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, <a href="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html" title="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r<br />oad-to-land-rights-22517.html</a> </p><p align="justify">Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, <a href="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html" title="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir<br />es-citizen-protest-22264.html</a></p><p align="justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: </strong></p><p align="justify"><strong><a href="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg" title="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg">http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg</a> </strong></p>               </font>
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		'title' => 'Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength',
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<div align="justify">
India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. 
</div>
<p align="justify">
&nbsp;
</p>
<p align="justify">
An assessment of the <a href="../empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2">RTI law</a> in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) 
</p>
<p align="justify">
The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.
</p>
<p align="justify">
The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. 
</p>
<p align="justify">
Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. 
</p>
<p align="justify">
Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.
</p>
<p align="justify">
The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). 
</p>
<p align="justify">
<strong><em>References: </em></strong>
</p>
<p align="justify">
The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), <a href="tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf">http://www.im4change.org/siteadmin/tinymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf </a>
</p>
<p align="justify">
8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, <a href="../latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html</a> 
</p>
<p align="justify">
40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, <a href="../latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html</a>  
</p>
<p align="justify">
Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, <a href="../news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html</a> 
</p>
<p align="justify">
Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, <a href="../news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html</a>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<strong>Image Courtesy: </strong>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<strong><a href="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg">http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg</a> </strong>
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	'metaTitle' => 'NEWS ALERTS | Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength',
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India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess...',
	'disp' => '<br /><div align="justify">India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. </div><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify">An assessment of the <a href="https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2" title="https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2">RTI law</a> in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) </p><p align="justify">The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.</p><p align="justify">The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. </p><p align="justify">Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. </p><p align="justify">Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.</p><p align="justify">The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). </p><p align="justify"><strong><em>References: </em></strong></p><p align="justify">The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), <a href="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf" title="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf">http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin<br />ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf </a></p><p align="justify">8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, <a href="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html" title="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt<br />i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html</a> </p><p align="justify">40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, <a href="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html" title="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-<br />their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229<br />72.html</a>  </p><p align="justify">Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, <a href="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html" title="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r<br />oad-to-land-rights-22517.html</a> </p><p align="justify">Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, <a href="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html" title="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir<br />es-citizen-protest-22264.html</a></p><p align="justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: </strong></p><p align="justify"><strong><a href="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg" title="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg">http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg</a> </strong></p>',
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	'id' => (int) 22987,
	'title' => 'Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength',
	'subheading' => '',
	'description' => '<br />
<div align="justify">
India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. 
</div>
<p align="justify">
&nbsp;
</p>
<p align="justify">
An assessment of the <a href="../empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2">RTI law</a> in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) 
</p>
<p align="justify">
The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.
</p>
<p align="justify">
The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. 
</p>
<p align="justify">
Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. 
</p>
<p align="justify">
Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.
</p>
<p align="justify">
The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). 
</p>
<p align="justify">
<strong><em>References: </em></strong>
</p>
<p align="justify">
The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), <a href="tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf">http://www.im4change.org/siteadmin/tinymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf </a>
</p>
<p align="justify">
8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, <a href="../latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html</a> 
</p>
<p align="justify">
40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, <a href="../latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html</a>  
</p>
<p align="justify">
Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, <a href="../news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html</a> 
</p>
<p align="justify">
Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, <a href="../news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html</a>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<strong>Image Courtesy: </strong>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<strong><a href="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg">http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg</a> </strong>
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India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess...'
$disp = '<br /><div align="justify">India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace. </div><p align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p align="justify">An assessment of the <a href="https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2" title="https://im4change.in/empowerment/right-to-information-58.html?pgno=2">RTI law</a> in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) </p><p align="justify">The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far.  It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers.</p><p align="justify">The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. </p><p align="justify">Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. </p><p align="justify">Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy.</p><p align="justify">The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). </p><p align="justify"><strong><em>References: </em></strong></p><p align="justify">The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), <a href="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf" title="https://im4change.in/siteadmin/tinymce/uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf">http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin<br />ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf </a></p><p align="justify">8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav,  The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, <a href="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html" title="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rti-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt<br />i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html</a> </p><p align="justify">40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, <a href="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html" title="https://im4change.in/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-22972.html">http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used-<br />their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229<br />72.html</a>  </p><p align="justify">Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, <a href="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html" title="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-road-to-land-rights-22517.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r<br />oad-to-land-rights-22517.html</a> </p><p align="justify">Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, <a href="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html" title="https://im4change.in/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fires-citizen-protest-22264.html">http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir<br />es-citizen-protest-22264.html</a></p><p align="justify"><strong>Image Courtesy: </strong></p><p align="justify"><strong><a href="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg" title="http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg">http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg</a> </strong></p>'
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Seven Years of RTI: From Strength to Strength

India's landmark Right to Information Legislation is called the biggest single step since independence to build transparency in governance. However, its remarkable success is owed only to just 0.3 per cent of Indians who file RTI applications. It's anybody's guess as to what would be the impact if even one or two per cent of Indians began to ask tough questions to hold their rulers accountable. It is noteworthy that the number may be small but it is growing at a steady pace.   An assessment of the RTI law in 10 States and the Central Government by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) brings out some interesting facts and figures about the landmark law based on a study of their recent Annual Reports. (See the whole report below) The study exposes those State Information Commissions which have defaulted for a second consecutive year to display their Annual Reports (for 2011-12) on their websites. The States are: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Even though the next report (Jan to December 2012) is overdue, only one state government (Maharashtra) has displayed it so far. It says that most State Information Commissions are reluctant to exercise their statutory power to impose penalties or to take disciplinary actions against errant Public Information Officers. The study entitled: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) says that the number of RTI applicants amounts to only 0.5 percent of the electorate comprising of citizens aged 18 and above. The highest number of RTI applications has been rejected on the grounds of a possible breach of privacy and that most states fail to compile the number of RTI users on the basis of caste, community or gender. The highest numbers of RTI applications are filed for only five government departments and the top two happen to be the Revenue and Urban Development Departments. The Rural Development and Police Departments also figure in high in many states. Most State Governments show their indifference in knowing how RTI is empowering the women, the dalits, the poor and the rural populace. This is corroborated by the fact that only the state of Chhattisgarh that provides gender, class (i.e. BPL), caste (i.e. SC/ST) and rural-urban break-up of the data on number of RTI applicants. For example, in Chhattisgarh, 2,351 women (4.81 percent of the total number of RTI applicants) sought information under the Central RTI Act in 2011-12. Roughly, 2.49 percent of the RTI applicants belonged to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category. Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) accounted for 3.38 percent and 3.06 percent of the total number of RTI applications submitted in that state, respectively. Most number of rejections of RTI applications (15,279) in public authorities under Central Government occurred on the grounds of protecting personal privacy [Central RTI Act, Section 8(1)(j)]. More than 4,000 RTI applications are said to have been rejected because they pertained to the 25 intelligence and security organisations notified by the Central Government under Section 24 of the Central RTI Act, thus, indicating that not much has changed in the mindset of bureaucracy. The total value of the penalties imposed by the Central Information Commission and the State Information Commissions of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra were the highest crossing Rs. 35 lakhs (Rs. 3.5 million) each. The State Information Commission of Karnataka imposed penalties in most number of cases (537) followed by its counterpart in Maharashtra (343). The lowest recovery of penalty amounts was in Bihar (about one-fourth). Except Maharashtra State Information Commission, no other Information Commission has uploaded its latest Annual Report due, for either the calendar year (January-December 2012) or the financial year (April 2012- March 2013). References: The Use of Right to Information Laws in India-A Rapid Study Based on the Annual Reports of Information Commissions (2011-12) prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Amrita Paul, Seema Choudhary and Maja Daruwala, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), http://www.im4change.orghttps://im4change.in/siteadmin/tin ymce//uploaded/RTI%20study.pdf 8 years on, RTI Act counts its milestones -Shyamlal Yadav, The Indian Express, 12 October, 2013, http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/8-years-on-rt i-act-counts-its-milestones-shyamlal-yadav-22978.html 40 lakh used their right to information in 2011-12 -Anahita Mukherji, The Times of India, 12 October, 2013, http://www.im4change.org/latest-news-updates/40-lakh-used- their-right-to-information-in-2011-12-anahita-mukherji-229 72.html Taking the mass RTI road to land rights, http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/taking-the-mass-rti-r oad-to-land-rights-22517.html Move to amend RTI fires citizen protest, http://www.im4change.org/news-alerts/move-to-amend-rti-fir es-citizen-protest-22264.html Image Courtesy: http://hp.gov.in/HPPSC/image.axd?picture=2009%2F6%2Frti1[1].jpg