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88% of RTI requests responded to or, being processed- SLPI Study
View(s):One year after the Right to Information (RTI) Law came into effect, 88% of the RTI requests submitted to Government Ministries have been responded to or, are being processed, while 12% have been rejected, according to a study conducted by the Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI), based on data received from 22 Ministries.
As per the RTI process, if a request is rejected, an appeal can be made to the Designated Officer at the relevant authority, failing which, an appeal could be made to the RTI Commission. In this regard, the RTI Commission had received 485 appeals as of Jan.26, 2018, the SLPI stated in a media release.
The Ministry of Education has received the most number of RTI requests, at an average of 35 RTI requests per month, followed by the Ministry of Public Administration and Management with 30 RTI requests per month, the Ministry of Health, Nutrition & Indigenous Medicine, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Transport & Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media, which is the nodal Ministry for implementation for RTI in Sri Lanka.
The highest amount of RTI requests to the Ministries came from Colombo, Gampaha and Kandy districts, while the least number of requests were from Mullaitivu, Vavuniya and Batticaloa districts.
While this data from the main Ministries indicates there is progress, there is still a long way to go, the SLPI release stated. Countries which have implemented the RTI Law before Sri Lanka, are still facing challenges in getting the message across, and getting both, officials and citizens to use the RTI. The nodal Ministry for RTI Implementation, the RTI Commission, Public Authorities, media and civil society organisations must continue to build awareness and provide support on all fronts, for the successful implementation of the RTI, the release pointed out.