Daily Excelsior: Srinagar: Saturday, June 17, 2017.
During an RTI
roundtable at Anantnag recently , State Chief Information Commissioner
(CIC) Khurshid Ahmad Ganai revealed some
alarming facts. He said that very less RTI applications are being filed in the
Government departments that deal with development. Mr Ganai probably compiled
these details by counting the number of
2nd appeals that are filed before the State Information Commission (SIC)
for disposal. On the other hand very less number of information seekers follow
their RTI cases as per the provisions of RTI law. According to my personal
observation only 10 to 20 % of people who are denied information by PIOs or are
provided misleading and incomplete information file appeals or complaints
before State Information Commission (SIC). The main reason is lack of RTI
awareness among masses. People are seldom aware about various provisions of RTI
Act. I get at least one or two calls daily wherein people complain that they
have not been provided information under RTI even after a lapse of requisite 30
days. These RTI applicants are not at all aware that after 30 days they can file 1st appeal before a senior officer
(First Appellate Authority , FAA) and then 2nd appeal before State Information
Commission (SIC).
I am of this
opinion that only such cases land in the J&K State Information Commission
wherein people have some personal grievances like denied information from
Public Service Commission (PSC) , Services Selection Recruitment Board (SSRB) ,
land dispute , grant of building permissions by municipal authorities or other
similar issues. People who file 2nd appeal before State Information Commission
(SIC) are usually educated and well informed. Illiterate un educated and people
belonging to far off places hardly know what an Information Commission is all
about ?
Why
developmental cases don’t come to SIC ?
People do
seek information on developmental issues. Infact I can say with authority that
most of the RTIs are filed in developmental departments such as Rural
Development Department , Public Works Department (PWD), Social Welfare
Department etc. Among Government
developmental organisations most of the RTI applications are filed
before Block Development Officers (BDOs) of Rural Development Department (RDD).
People who are denied entitlement under rural housing scheme in order to build
a pressure on BDO office seek beneficiary list under PMs Awas Yojna which was
previously called Indira Awas Yojna (IAY). Many RTI applicants who claim that
they were entitled to get monetary benefit under PMAY or IAY are promised this
entitlement by BDO’s ,Village Level Workers (VLWs) or Panchayat Secretaries
after aggrieved file RTI applications.
So these cases hardly go for 1st appeal or 2nd appeal before the State
Information Commission (SIC). If some applicants are not promised anything ,
they are not aware about 1st and 2nd appeals so in that case also the appeals
don’t reach to SIC.
Disadvantaged
communities don’t have access to SIC :
People from
disadvantaged communities have been given several benefits under J&K RTI
Act 2009. First of all they are exempted from paying even Rs 10 RTI application
fees. Secondly they are to be assisted by Public Information Officers (PIOs)
during drafting of RTI application in case they don’t know how to write an RTI
application. Third benefit for them under RTI Act is that Government is duty bound to create awareness
on RTI Act especially among the disadvantaged communities. But in-spite of all
these legal provisions under the State RTI Act
poor, illiterate and people from disadvantaged communities hardly have
access to State Information Commission (SIC) where they can plead their cases.
Even if such people seek information under RTI , they cannot file 1st or 2nd
appeals as they are not guided about the same. If some information seekers are
well informed about RTI , they cannot afford to travel all along to Srinagar or
Jammu city where State Information Commission (SIC) has its offices . Only
handful of such people seek justice from SIC and such people are usually
motivated either by RTI activists or some public spirited citizens. In-fact we
have been trying our best to assist people from marginalized communities from
last 10 years, but due to limited resources our volunteers cannot reach out to
such people in all the 22 districts of
state. But in-spite of all this I can proudly say that we under the banner of
J&K RTI Movement have tried our best
to assist people vis a vis RTI awareness without being paid for it by
Government or any other institution.
Separate
budget for RTI awareness:
During his
first interaction with RTI activists, First Appellate Authorities (FAAs)
&Public Information Officers (PIOs) at Srinagar Chief Information
Commissioner Mr Khurshid Ahmad Ganai suggested that Government should allocate
a separate budget for ensuring awareness on Right to Information Act
(RTI). It is now more than 13 years
since we have Right to Information law enforced in J&K. Earlier we had
J&K RTI Act 2004 enacted way back in year 2004. In March 2009 this law was repealed and we got a more robust RTI law (J&K RTI Act
2009) which is enforced in J&K as on
date. During last 13 years , lots of citizens have used RTI Act and this has
empowered large number of people , but the number of people using this law
still remains very less . At an average only 1000 applications have been filed
in each district as per the recent information available with State Information
Commission (SIC) . The reason is quite obvious ie Lack of Awareness about RTI
Act.
Conclusion
:
Separate
budget for RTI awareness is a very legitimate demand of Chief Information
Commissioner (CIC) Khurshid Ahmad Ganai.
The Government is under legal obligation to create awareness on RTI , but
without proper funding and budget , Information Education & Communication
(IEC) activities cannot be undertaken by Government or outsourcing the same to
organizations working on RTI promotion in state. If RTI applications filed in
Developmental Departments are not followed at the level of First Appellate
Authorities (FAAs) or State Information Commission (SIC), I won’t blame
information seekers for it. In-fact Government is responsible for all this as
they do not adhere to the provisions of section 23 of J&K RTI Act 2009
wherein they have to reach out to people especially disadvantaged communities
and make them understand the provisions of RTI Act. During these public
reach-out programmes Government was supposed to organize RTI melas , workshops
, seminars and other similar activities. It is my humble submission that Chief
Information Commissioner Khurshid Ahmad
Ganai should organize some 2nd appeal
hearings on the pattern of Lok Adalats in far off districts like Kupwara, Kishtwar , Doda , Bandipora etc
so that appellants from these districts
will not only get relief at doorsteps
but this activity will also generate awareness about RTI. When people will well
understand the role of State Information Commission (SIC) , I am sure RTIs
filed before development departments will be followed by people from the office
of PIO to the office of Chief Information
Commissioner (CIC).
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