Our Correspondent
Kohima | February 27
Public Authorities in Nagaland State received a total of 3708 Right To Information (RTI) applications in 2017-18. Of this, information was furnished in 3444 requests/applications.
During the period under report, out of the 3708 RTI applications, the districts received more than 50% of the total number of RTI applications in the State like in the previous years at 52.43%, followed by the Directorates at 27.78 %, Secretariat at 12.76% and other units at 7.04%.
The number of RTI applications received at different levels during 2017-18 stands as: Directorates- 1030, Districts- 1944, Secretariat- 473 and other units (commissions, boards, missions, statutory bodies, autonomous bodies, public sector undertakings etc.)- 261.
This was stated in the Annual Report 2017-18 of Nagaland Information Commission tabled by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio in the State Assembly session here Tuesday.
The report stated that the overall percentage of information furnished by the PIOs of various public authorities during 2017-18 was 92.88 %, which was a slight decrease from 93.72% during 2016-17.
The report stated that there has been a steady increase in the number of RTI applications received by the various Public Authorities in Nagaland State since its inception from 2006-07 to 2015-16. However, there has been a decline in the number of RTI applications received by the various public authorities in the state from 4526 requests/applications in 2015-16 down to 4344 in 2016-17 and further to 3708 during 2017-18.
“This decline can be safely attributed to the increase in the level of transparency amongst the various Public Authorities in the State from 2015-16 to 2017-18 as per the analysis of the suo moto disclosure carried out by the Commission during the last three years,” the report stated.
Though more than 50% of the total RTI applications in the State were received at the district level, the districts fared the best in furnishing responses to the RTI applications at 99.38%, followed by other units at 95.02, Directorate at 93.79% and the Secretariat at 63.00%, the report stated.
