Maharashtra receives more RTI queries than Britain, Mexico

Maharashtra has outnumbered Britain and Mexico in receiving queries under the Right to Information Act, the State Information Commission has said.
    
"In 2009, Maharashtra received 4,40,728 queries of RTI while Britain received 90,000 and Mexico 1,25,000 under a similar legislation," the Commission said in a recent report.
    
The state got more RTI applications compared to the national level. The Central panel got 3.5 lakh applications last year, it said.
    
Acting promptly on the huge number of applications, the panel provided the information to 4,39,061 applicants, the report said.
    
The maximum queries 1,25,418 were about Urban Development Department followed by 72,393 of Revenue Department. Also the Home Department and Rural Development received over 45,000 and 43,000 applications respectively, it said.

The government has received over Rs1 crore through the applicants excluding the fees from people below poverty line.
    
The state started implementing the RTI from 2005 and it has a chief information commissioner and six divisional information commissioners.