Lucknow, Aug. 23 -- The State Information Commission has disposed of 23,113 out of the 24,987 cases that were pending in the old offline system when the newly appointed state chief information commissioner and state information commissioners joined on March 13, 2024, clocking a clearance rate of 92.5%, according to the progress report on the Complaint and Appeal Tracking System (CATS-UPSIC). The State Information Commission presented the progress report and discussed effective implementation of the Right to Information Act with chief minister Yogi Adityanath during a courtesy visit on Saturday. Chief information commissioner Raj Kumar Vishwakarma briefed the CM on the commission's functioning and work. Information commissioners Rakesh Kumar, Mohammad Nadeem, Sudhir Kumar Singh, Shakuntala Gautam, Rajendra Singh, P.N. Dwivedi, Virendra Singh Vats and Swatantra Prakash Gupta were part of the delegation The chief minister expressed satisfaction with the functioning of the Uttar Pradesh Information Commission. Adityanath launched the CATS-UPSIC platform on January 5, 2024 to facilitate online filing of second appeals and complaints and to ensure hybrid hearings across the state. On the new CATS-UPSIC platform, 66,203 cases have been registered so far, of which 43,022 have been disposed of and 22,828 are currently pending across the Commission's 11 hearing rooms covering all 75 districts. The new platform offers a completely paperless process - online filing, hybrid hearings, e-book access to case records, and real-time status tracking for full transparency. Public information officers and first appellate authorities across departments have been onboarded onto the system. A key feature is the online and hybrid hearing facility, which allows appellants to join hearings through video conferencing from anywhere in the country and even from abroad. Officials said the facility is particularly beneficial for citizens in remote rural areas and economically weaker sections, who can file second appeals and complaints online and attend hearings via video conferencing without travelling long distances. This saves time, travel cost and makes the RTI process more accessible and inclusive. Photographs showing citizens participating in hearings through video conferencing were also enclosed with the progress report. The UPSIC began building the platform in May 2022, well ahead of the Supreme Court's directive of October 2023 mandating hybrid hearings for all State Information Commissions, making Uttar Pradesh one of the earliest states to comply....