SWATEE KHER MUMBAI, MARCH 21 WITH over 4 lakh applicants over the last one year, Maharashtra leads the country in RTI applications. Most applications are directed towards the urban development department (UDD), revenue and home departments. BMC received the maximum applications at the corporation level, followed by Pune, Kalyan-Dombivali, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Navi Mumbai. Statistics of the annual report of the information commission for 2008, submitted to the government on Thursday, show that various departments received 4,16,090 applications, besides 28,038 first appeals, 14,J28 appeals and 2,538 complaints submitted before the commission. Apart from this, 50,064 applications were pending from 2007. Of the four lakh applications, UDD received the bulk of applications with 1,04,766 queries, revenue department received 70,499 applications, Home department received 45,363 applications and the Rural development department received 38,253 applications. The other departments to receive applications were school education, public works department, industries, co-operation and textiles, housing and the forest department. BMC received 46,967 applications and it had 3321 applications pending from 2007. BMC collected an amount of Rs .21.96 lakh.from the applications. Pune corporations received 5,804 applications while Kalyan-Dombivali corporation received 1713 applications. The information commission stated that it could provide information to 3,97,662 applications in all. The UDD provided information to 1,04,831 applications, revenue department provided information to 67,317 applications and the home department provided information to 42,704 applications. The government received over Rs 781a1ch from the fees given by applicants. The applications focus on information related to long pending proposals and issues with the government, corruption related to implementation of policies and forging of 7/12 land records. The report states that there are lesser applications aimed at public welfare and broader social issues. The commission states that a large number of appeals pending before it are from Marathwada and Pune region division. The commissioner, however, points out that there is a need to appoint senior officials as public information officers (PIO) for faster and efficient handling of queries. "With the increase of applications, the positions of public information officers were given to junior officers. It has been pointed out to the government that the responsibility of PIO should be given to appropriate high level officials. We are concerned that over the years, lower level officers are being appointed as PIOs," states the report. Urban development, revenue and home departments take the lead RTI STATUS Year Applications Appeals Cleared 2006 1,23,000 2007 3,16,000 3,611 2008 4,16,000 15,026