The number of RTI applications filed with the prime minister’s office (PMO) has seen a steep rise of almost 100 times in the last five years. From 48 application filed in the year 2005, the PMO had received 3032 queries till September last year.

The department received a total of 10, 496 RTI applications in the last five years. Out of these, 128 were referred to the central information commission. More than 3, 000 queries were filed last year alone.

The data was obtained by Noida based RTI activist Commodore (Rtd.) Lokesh Batra over a period of six months.

The applicant has gathered similar information from four other government offices viz. the ministry of external affairs (MEA), department of personal and training (DoPT)- the nodal department for the implementation of the transparency act and Supreme Court.

“To obtain the information, I had to file first appeals with the PMO, MEA & DoPT. Supreme Court provided data in 23 sheets without collating it as per my queries,” said the applicant.

According to the information, the MEA received 3765 applications under the transparency act in the last five calendar years. Maximum number of applications- 946, were filed in the year 2007. There were 652 cases in which the applicants did not receive information or were unsatisfied with the quality of information received and filed first appeals with the ministry.

DoPT processed 14, 292 applications in the last five years.  

Out of 6, 175 applications received by the Supreme Court between 2006 and Nonvember last, 905 cases went for first appeal.

Interestingly, more than 14, 000 queries in DoPT were handled by 47 central public information officers (CPIOs). In other words, each CPIO handled 276 queries over a span of five years.  
 
“All other public authorities have only one CPIO. MEA has a full time CPIO of joint secretary rank,” said Batra.