No Information Commission has published 2015-16 annual report: INGO

None of the country's Information Commissions that follow the financial year reporting cycle have published annual reports for 2015-16 period, an international NGO said on Monday.

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), in data released here, also revealed that four Information Commissions -- in Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh -- have not published any annual report on their respective websites till date since their inception in 2005.

In other findings, CHRI said that among those which follow the financial year reporting cycle, only seven Information Commissions -- Central Information Commission (CIC) and those in Gujarat, Karnataka, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan and Assam -- have published their annual reports for 2014-15.

According to CHRI, a total of 1.75 crore (1,75,23,154) Right To Information (RTI) applications are reported to have been made to the central and state governments during the period 2005-2015.

The report further said that in 2014-15, about 26 lakh RTI applications were reported from central government, and 14 from state governments, with an average of 7,120 applications filed per day.

"In 2014-15, 1.75 lakh appeals and complaints were pending across 16 Information Commissions," said the report.

Among of the total number of RTI applications received between 2005-2015, the Central Information Commission (CIC) received 47,66,798 applications, followed by Maharashtra with 46,26,970. Karnataka ranked third with 20,73,112 applications followed by Andhra Pradesh with 8,66,952.

"Amongst the Information Commissions that follow the calendar year reporting cycle, only Meghalaya and Sikkim have published their annual reports for the year 2015," CHRI said.

"The Karnataka Information Commission is the only body that has published online, all annual reports due, since October 2005," it added.

--IANS

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