AHMEDABAD: Last June, chief information commissioner (CIC) Dilip Thaker had informed the chief secretary, Anil Mukim, that most government departments in the state were lethargic about informing the commission of the number of RTI applications filed with them. Each year the Gujarat Information Commission (GIC) prepares an annual report with the number of applications filed by citizens across the state.
Thaker cited the example of the commission’s 2021 report, where the number of applications filed across the state was 20,284. “This was far less than the number of applications in our 2020 annual report. We have reason to believe that departments are not uploading true information with regard to RTI applications filed,” said Thaker in the letter. He adds, “This sadly, does not give a true picture of the RTI Act in Gujarat, neither to citizen nor the state assembly, where our annual report is placed.”
