Patna, Aug. 22 (PTI): Human resource department top the list of queries made under the the Right to Information Act.

“About 20 per cent of applications under the Right to Information Act are directed to the human resource department in Bihar, on education-related activities,” state information commission secretary B.B. Pandey said today.

“Of the total 3,295 the right to information applications received in 2008-09, 597 were directed to the human resource department,” he added.

“The cabinet secretariat department received 244 applications under the Right to Information, while the personnel and administrative reforms department had 211 queries,” he said.

“The health department (188), rural works department (159), food and consumer protection department (143) and panchayati raj department (140) were among the others to get a large number of queries under the Right to Information Act,” Pandey said.

“The home department received 120, energy department 107, social welfare department 102 and the cooperative department 101 applications,” Pandey added.

Meanwhile, the state government's decision to popularise the Right to Information Act by enabling the people to ask questions to the concerned department over telephone has evoked good response with 16,598 people availing the facility in 2009-10. Of those, 8,838 applications have already been disposed of.

Officials said that Bihar is the only state in the country to allow Right to Information applications through telephone, adding that the facility was launched in January under the Jankari scheme.

The Right to Information has been granted to all citizens of India to secure access to information under the control of public authorities.