Daily Excelsior: Srinagar: Wednesday,
April 19, 2017.
There are
some misconceptions about the RTI Act of 2009 which is made applicable to the
J&K State as well. Some people are under the impression that since the
citizens of the State are given the Right to Information therefore information
asked from any department will be conveyed to the seeker of information. That
is simplistic interpretation of the Act an ordinary people go by that concept.
Most of us are not well informed on what the
Section 4 of the RTI Act stipulates. The section, put in simple words, imposes
responsibility on all departments of the Government, public authorities and
various State Commissions to install their respective websites and post suo
moto information on these websites as part of Right to Information. The Section
in question lays down various obligations of the Public Authority for suo-moto
disclosure of information pertaining to it particularly the functions and
duties, the powers and duties of its officers, the procedure followed in the
decision making process including channels of supervision and accountability,
the norms set-forth by it for discharge of functions, rules/regulations,
instructions and manuals being followed by it for discharging its functions
etc. This explains that the entire administrative, judicial and legislative
structure is obliged to observe the Act in letter and in spirit and following
the concept of transparency, let the people know fullest possible information
on the functioning of the departments. This is a very dependable means of
bringing about close association between the public and the governing mechanism
in the State.
However, we regret to say that the spirit of
the Act is wantonly bruised and mauled because there is hardly a department of
the Government, a public authority, a formal organization of the Government or
its institution that has strictly followed the instructions contained in
Section 4 of the Act. In other words, it is to say with sadness that none of
these organizations numbering about 70 has posted suo moto information on its website.
It is so sad that not to speak of government departments even prestigious
institutions like State Accountability Commission (SAC) and State Human Rights
Commission (SHRC) have been violating provisions of Jammu and Kashmir Right to
Information Act, 2009 relating to suo-moto disclosure of information pertaining
to them. Astonishingly, State Accountability Commission is also defaulting
while as State High Court has posted incomplete information on its website.
What to talk of making suo-moto disclosure of information the State Human
Rights Commission doesn’t have its own website. Even the offices of Divisional
Commissioners and that of several Deputy Commissioners have not strictly
adhered to Section 4 of the Act and their websites are lacking requisite
details. Even the websites of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and
Legislative Council are deficient in information. The status of non-compliance
is notwithstanding the fact that even General Administration Department has
issued numerous circulars about compliance to Section 4 of RTI Act a number of
times.
Taking this state of affairs into
consideration and considering the ground reality that many of these public
authorities have not even maintained websites, the expectation that suo moto
disclosure of information by the departments and public authority institutions
remains a distant dream. The people want that the Act is enforced in letter and
in spirit. The Information Commission of the State has give time till June to
all the departments to post suo moto information on their websites. We hope
that realizing their responsibility towards the people and also following the
repeated instructions of the GAD, all departments and public authorities will
file information on the website and thus give a start to implementation of the
RTI in letter and in spirit.
It is unacceptable that some Government
institutions have not so far set up their websites and others that have set
them up are not updated regularly. It is no use setting up the website if it is
not updated every day to keep people informed about the progress in various
aspects of concerned departments.