Rising Kashmir: Srinagar: Saturday, June 10, 2017.
The Chief
Information Commissioner (CIC) J&K Khurshid Ahmed Ganai called for creating
more awareness among the general public for effective implementation of the
J&K RTI Act, 2009.
The Chief
Information Commissioner was addressing the Roundtable of First Appellate
Authorities (FAAs), Public Information Officers (PIOs) of District Anantnag.
The CIC
stated that as per the figures available for the year 2014-15, 27,000 RTI
applications have been received by the PIOs in the State while over 30,000
applications were received in the year 2013-14. This works out to an average of
1200 to 1300 applications per district per year which is quite low.
He said if
higher number of applications from the districts of Srinagar and Jammu are
accounted for, then it would appear that the number of applications from other
districts is even less than 1,000 per year or may be even lesser. This he said
is the result of lack of awareness about the RTI law among the general public.
He said that
exercise of the right under the RTI Act can be extremely useful in improving
the delivery of the developmental programmes being undertaken as part of the
District as well as State Plans and under various other State and Centrally
sponsored schemes and projects. He also said that greater exercise of RTI will
help to improve the performance of the local self government institutions like
Municipalities and Panchayats and also of recruitment agencies.
He said that
there is a need for allocation of separate budget which could be provided to
all the Deputy Commissioners in the State to conduct awareness generation
programmes about the RTI to meet the requirements of Section 23.
The RTI
activists highlighted the problems which the RTI applicants are facing and
sought directions from the CIC and the Deputy Commissioner to all the PIOs so
that the information sought for by the applicants is provided within the
stipulated time frame and no information is hidden unless covered by the
exemptions under sections 8 and 9 of the Act or cannot be provided in terms of
section 11 etc.