Daily
Excelsior: Jammu: Wednesday, 10 February 2016.
The Right to
Information Act was passed by the Parliament way back in 2002. It was extended
to the State of Jammu and Kashmir also. Over the years the influence and
functioning of the RTI has been closely watched by observers and agencies in
civil society. General impression is that RTI has been highly beneficial and
has contributed to the creation of culture of openness and transparency. The
fact of the matter is that Right to Information is an important instrument to
strengthen the roots of democracy and also to work towards good governance.
A succinct and objective summing up of the RTI
was given by Governor N.N. Vohra while addressing Regional Conference on Right
to Information organized by J&K Institute of Management, Public
Administration and Rural Development (IMPARD) in collaboration with Jammu and
Kashmir State Information Commission and sponsored by Department of Personnel
and Trainings (DoPT), Government of India. He said that he had been closely
watching the advancement of the Act of RTI in the State and he was convinced
that after overcoming initial hiccups, the Act has become part of the administrative
culture of the State. Initially the departments were loath to give out
information in public interest because the culture of secrecy and keeping away
from the public any facts and figures about the performance of the Government
was long standing culture most probably coming down to us from the days of
British Raj. But now departments were more open and forthcoming and the stage
of disclosing knowledge voluntarily had been reached.
The Governor was very right in saying that
even if we did not have the law, still the people of the State and the country
enjoyed the right to information as it is vested in the constitution of the
country. It is true that departments are now voluntarily posting information on
their respective websites and the need is that they update their websites
regularly to make RTI operative in letter and in spirit. Civil society is also
reacting constructively towards the Act. Lawyers, advocates and legal
luminaries are taking up PIL cases and pursuing them and thereby the RTI is further
strengthened. Fortunately, the Supreme Court has further strengthened the Act
by interpreting many of its clauses in the right spirit keeping in mind the
fundamental principal that the people of this country have a right to know how
they and the country are governed. The governance has to be transparent and not
in secrecy.
Though some achievements have been made by the
civil society in promulgating the reach of RTI, much remains to be done still
in this regard. There are still pockets in the administrative structure of the
State where the rights of the people to transparency and accountability have to
be streamlined.
Morality and ethics form the base of
transparency and accountability, which in turn strengthen the Right to
Information. This is an intertwined affair and has to be dealt with
comprehensively.