Till date, the civic body has received approximately 900 RTI applications. The building department alone received nearly 450 applications but it has been able to answer only 300 of them. Out of this, 40 per cent answers were inadequate and failed to satisfy the applicants. Many of them had to file a second RTI applications. The assessment and revenue departments have received 275 RTI queries of which 200 were answered. The license department also received nearly 100 applications but most of the responses were unsatisfactory.

According to a KMC official, not only a large number of these replies are either unsatisfactory or inadequate, they are received only after several reminders. On several occasions, the Special Public Information Officers (SPIO) of the KMC have been issued showcause notices by the State Information Commission for not acting according to the RTI rules. “Since the Act does not allow us to withhold answers, we are forced to reply. But in most cases we mention that we are not able to reply to the specific query due to shortage of adequate reports and documents available,” said a senior KMC official of the RTI cell.