The Northlines: JK: Wednesday, March
22, 2017.
The J&K
Right to Information Act (J&K RTI Act) enters its 9th year of
implementation today. A Rapid Study of the official websites of 230 public
authorities under the J&K Government conducted by J&K RTI Movement and
CHRI reveals that compliance with the requirement of proactive disclosure of
information under Section 4(1)(b) of the J&K RTI Act remains poor. Key
findings from this Rapid Study are given below.
What is
proactive information disclosure under Section 4 of the J&K RTI Act?
Section
4(1)(b) of the J&K RTI Act makes it compulsory for all public authorities
to place a wealth of information in the public domain. This includes detailed
information about their organization and functions, powers and duties of their
officials, rules, regulations, norms and
manuals that must guide their work, details of decision-making
processes, budgets and expenditure, subsidiary programmes implemented,
authorisations and permits issued and a list of all records held in paper or
electronic form. Additionally, every public authority is required to publicise
relevant facts about all important policy matters or decisions it takes, from
time to time. Every person who is affected by any decision of a public
authority has the right to be informed of the reasons behind such decisions.
Section 4(2) of the J&K RTI Act explains that the purpose of proactively
disclosing all this information is to reduce people’s need to seek information
by filing formal RTI applications. A deeper examination of the scheme of the
J&K RTI Act indicates that proactive disclosure of information is
prioritized over reactive disclosure i.e., supplying information against formal
RTI applications.
Key findings
from the Rapid Study conducted by J&KRTI Movement and CHRI
Key findings
from a rapid study of the official websites of the two Divisional
Commissioners, the administration of 22 districts and 206 departments,
autonomous bodies and other public authorities are as follows:
· The DivComs and all districts have official websites. 59%
of the districts have not uploaded Section 4(1)(b) information to a reasonable
degree of compliance on their official websites. They are either incomplete or
not published at all.
· 3/4ths of the district websites do not display any
information about their annual budgets. Only the district administration of
Bandipora and Budgam have displayed the latest budget-related information for
2016-17.
· The Kargil district website is the best of all district
websites included in this Rapid Study. Detailed information about the working
of the Deputy Commissioner’s office and other departments in the district has
been published in compliance with the J&K RTI Act. Udhampur seems to be the
only district administration to display the physical verification reports of
the developmental projects undertaken under various developmental programmes up
to 2016.
· Some districts have nevertheless taken innovative steps
to display other categories of information proactively. Doda district website
displays property statements of the officials of the DC’s office, and the
Tahsildars and the total number of various types of ration cards issued by the
administration, Tahsil-wise. Websites of Samba, Rajouri and Pulwama display the
number of complaints received under the J&K Public Services Grievances Act,
2011. However this information is also not regularly updated.
· More than 15% of the remaining 209 public authorities
(other than DivComs and District Administration) in J&K covered by the
study do not have websites. As many as 4 out of every 10 of the 177 public
authorities with official websites do not display any information required to
be proactively disclosed under Section 4(1)(b) of the J&K RTI Act.
Compliance is only 57.62%;
· 19.2% (32) of the public authorities have not displayed
any details regarding the PIOs and FAAs designated by them for dealing with RTI
applications and first appeals.
· More than 3/4ths (138) of the public authorities with
websites have not displayed budget-related information. Only two public authorities
have displayed budget related information for the latest year i.e., 2017-18
(namely, Finance Dept. and the Directorate of Audit and Inspections). Six of
the remaining public authorities have displayed budget related information for
the year 2016-17 (namely, the Directorates of Horticulture and Animal
Husbandry, the J&K Legislative Assembly, the J&K Legislative Council,
IMPA and Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology).
· Under the section relating to budget and expenditure, the
website of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat states as follows:
Chief
Minister’s Secretariat does not have budget allocation for any programme nor it
has any agency under its direct control.”
However,
the budget document uploaded on the website of the Finance Department displays
the following sums of money allocated to the Council of Ministers and the CM’s
Secretariat in 2017-18:
I. Council of
Ministers (Voted): Rs. 752.80 lakhs;
II. CM’s Secretariat- GAD: Salary, travel expenses, Medical
reimbursement grant- Rs. 54.80 lakhs; and
III. CM’ Secretariat- GAD: Secret Services expenses: Rs. 1,500
lakhs.
· The budget-related section of the RTI Handbook(Manual) of
the Governor’s office (Raj Bhawan) has not been updated after 2014-15.
· The website of the J&K GeneralAdministration
Department – the nodal department for implementing the J&K RTI Act, has not
been updated for budget-related information after 2016.
(This
Rapid Study is an outcome of the Internship Programme that CHRI hosted at its
New Delhi office for Adv. (Ms.) Syed Iram Quadri and Adv. Bilal Ahmed Bhat,
members, J&K RTI Movement (J&K RTI Movement) and the School for Rural
Development and Environment (SRDE), from 01-28 February, 2017. CHRI and J&K
RTI Movement have compiled this preliminary report.)