NEW DELHI, August 25: The rate of disposal of the applications under the Right to Information Act had remained unaffected even during the Corona pandemic and given certain intervals of time, the disposal rate was even higher than the usual, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), and MoS PMO, Jitendra Singh said.
Addressing a meeting of the CIC and State Information Commissioners on Tuesday, .Jitendra Singh said ever since the Narendra Modi Government came to power in 2014, “Transparency and Citizen-Centricity” became the hallmark of the Governance Model. He said in the last six years, every conscious decision was taken to strengthen the Independence and Resources of the Information Commissions and all vacancies were filled as fast as possible.
He added that in June, 2020, RTI disposal rate was higher than June 2019 and everyone took note of that. This reinforced vigour proved to society and the nation that nothing could deter the working of the Modi Government, he added.
Jitendra Singh also suggested that the Information Authorities should ponder to avoid the avoidable RTIs and underlined that almost all information today was in the public domain. He also added that avoidance of duplication and misguided RTIs would lead to reduction in pendency and workload and would enhance efficiency.
Jitendra Singh lauded the Commission and its functionaries and said it go to their credit that in the midst of the pandemic on May 15 this year, the Central Information Commission started entertaining, hearing and disposing of RTIs from the newly created Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, through virtual means. 
The Minister also informed that any citizen of India could now file RTI pertaining to matters related to J&K and Ladakh, which was reserved to only Citizens of erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, before the Reorganisation Act of 2019. It was pointed out that consequent to the passing of J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, the J&K Right to Information Act 2009 and the Rules there under were repealed and Right to Information Act 2005 and the Rules there under were enforced from October 31, last year.
Chief Information Commissioner Bimal Julka said the Commission had effectively continued its interactive and outreach activities during the lockdown period and afterwards. These, he said, included video conference with civil society representatives and video conferencing with members of National Federation of Information Commissions in India (NFICI).
(Manas Dasgupta)