Daily Excelsior: Srinagar: Saturday,
March 04, 2017.
J&K State
Information Commission (SIC) has become operational again after remaining in a
state of suspended animation for several months. People from different walks of
life are satisfied over the appointment
of a retired IAS officer of 1982 batch Khurshid Ganai as State Chief
Information Commissioner (CIC). After being selected by a panel of selectors
headed by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti , Governor has formally issued
appointment order vide SRO 76 u/s 12 (3) of J&K RTI Act 2009 in favour of Khurshid Ahmad Ganai on 27th Feb
2016. In addition to disposal of several pending cases in the Information
Commission, the newly appointed CIC has several challenges which he needs to
address. Among these challenges is the issue of voluntary disclosure of
Information which is still not being adhered to by majority of the public
authorities especially the Government departments.
Violation of Section 4 (1) (b):
Public authorities especially the Government
departments of our state continue to violate section 4 (1) (b) of J&K RTI
Act 2009. This section lays emphasis on voluntary disclosure (pro active or
suo-moto disclosure) of information by
public authorities. Under both the State
and Central RTI Laws public authorities have been directed to make pro-active
disclosure of information within 120 days of the enactment of RTI Act. The
existing State RTI law (J&K RTI Act 2009) got enacted on March 20th 2009 ,
and by June end of year 2009 all the
public authorities which includes Government departments, Public sector
undertakings were supposed to digitize
all their records so that they could be uploaded on the official websites.
Almost eight years have elapsed since then
but majority of the records are yet to be kept available in public domain ( through websites etc) which is open violation of the section 4(1) (b) of State RTI Act. As
majority of the Government offices have not digitized the official information,
the ultimate sufferers are the ordinary information seekers who intend to get
information under Right to Information Act (RTI). The designated Public
Information Officers (PIO’s) in order in discourage information seekers are
asking information seekers to pay
exorbitant fees on account of xerox charges etc.
Cases studies:
Sajad Hussain Pandit S/O Ali Mohammad Pandit
R/O Iskander PoraTehsil Beerwah District Budgam filed an application under
J&K RTI Act 2009 before the PIO in
the office of Financial Commissioner (FC) Revenue during the month of May 2016.
On June 20th 2016, RTI applicant was
called in person by FC Revenue office Srinagar
and was given an official letter No: FC (Adm-RTI) 02/2016 dated
20/6/2016 . The information seeker was asked to pay an amount of Three thousand
eight hundred sixty six rupees (Rs 3866) for getting information with regard to
appointment of Patwaris more than a decade back. The information seeker alleges
that there was bungling and favoritism in the said appointment. The FC Revenue
office letter reads as :” In continuation to this office letter No FC(Adm-RTI)
02/2016 Dated 31/05/2016 , I am to say that information demanded by you are428
pages out of which 383 pages are of A 4 size which costs Rs 766 and rest pages
are large size which got copied from market on large photocopier and costs Rs
3100″. We all area aware that Rs 2 is charged per photocopy for A 4 size and
for the bigger size photocopy maximum cost cannot be more than Rs 10 per page.
This indicates that for rest 45 pages Information seeker had to pay Rs 450 only maximum , but he was asked to pay Rs
3100 , plus Rs 766 for photocopying A4 size pages. When the information was
received by the information seeker Sajad Hussain Pandit , that was completely
misleading and incorrect. Sajad is not
unnecessarily harassing the Govt officials , but he actually wants justice.
Pertinent to mention that during the year 2000 the FC office appointed 100
patwaris who were earlier chainmen in Revenue Department attached with
Patwaris. Sajad was also appointed as a
Chainman. His name was neither shortlisted for appointment as a
Patwari nor was he informed how the
process of selection was done. “I tried to get thisinformation by invoking my
right under RTI. I was made to pay such
a huge fees inspite of being an un employed person. when I opened the parcel , the information
was totally misleading and irrelevant ”
said Sajad. Another information seeker was made to pay Rs 2000 as
Photostat charges by the office of Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Tangmarg.
In-spite of paying this exorbitant fees , information seeker was provided
irrelevant and incorrect
information. Nisar Ahmad Parra
who is a resident of village Larkipora , Tehsil Karhama Tangmarg had filed an
application under J&K RTI Act 2009 before SDM Tangmarg on 19.5.2016. Parra
alleges that SDM office officials had denied to issue
Resident of Backward Area (RBA) certificate
to her divorced sister who lives with him after she got divorced more
than 4 years back. RTI applicant Nisar Ahmad Parra had obtained orders of the
Deputy Commissioner Baramulla for issuance of RBA certificate , but he alleges that said order was not
implemented by SDM Tangmarg. Then he decided to use RTI so as to know why the
order was not implemented ? In his RTI
application information seeker sought
information about the action taken by SDM office on DC’s letter and
sought list of RBA beneficiary list of Karhama , Kunzer and Tangmarg tehsils of
2014 and 2015. Instead of providing information seeker the list of persons who
were given RBA certificates , the SDM office provided him Xerox copies of
around 400 RBA certificates which he never sought , but was forced to pay Rs
2000 as Xerox fees.
Conclusion:
Had FC Revenue office or SDM Tangmarg digitized their record and
put the same in public domain , poor information seekers would not have to pay
thousands of rupees as Xerox fees for getting all misleading information . The
information about RBA beneficiaries has to be made available on official
websites of DCs or even SDMs. But this is not at all available on DC office
websites . The SDM offices in J&K have no websites at all. CIC Khurshid
Ganai was the man behind digitizing Govt record. It was during his tenure as
Commissioner /Secretary in General Administration Department (GAD) when GAD
started uploading all the officials orders / circulars on its official website on daily basis. Few
years back I sought information under RTI from State Vigilance Organisation
(SVO) about list of Govt officials for whom Vigilance Organization has sought
sanction for prosecution from Government. The Vigilance did not provide me the
names of the officials and instead they provided only the post of which they
worked. After few days , I found the whole list on GAD website wherein names ,
address , and post on which the officials were working was voluntary
disclosed. I am sure newly appointed
State Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) would focus on voluntary disclosure
of information and section 4(1) (b) of J&K RTI Act 2009 gives him powers to
act against the erring public authorities who are violating this important
aspect of RTI Act.
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