Daily Excelsior: Srinagar: Sunday, June 03, 2018.
If you are in
Government service, you are bound to honour facilitating of implementation of
Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act. If taken lightly or conveniently
choose to jump the fixed timeline by which it should be implemented in respect
of any case, you could also face penal action including coughing out money
in cash as penalty which could be
deducted from your salary.
It is worth
noting that the State Information Commission has recently imposed a penalty of
Rs. 25000 on a KAS Officer who was found reluctant to implementing the proviso
of the RTI Act. His drawing and
disbursing officer has been directed to deduct the amount of fine from his salary and file compliance report.
The action
was caused due to the fact that an RTI complainant applied for some information
on June 21, 2016 which was regarding implementation of Integrated Child
Development Scheme and his application was transferred to the State Mission
Directorate. The KAS Officer over there, who should have taken proper action in
the matter and in time , failed to do so. The applicant, thereafter, had to file an appeal and that also did not
yield results. The PIO State Mission Directorate, thus, violated section 7(1)
of the J&K Right to Information Act
which lays down that the information has to be provided by the PIO
within 30 days from the date of the filing of the RTI application . This fact
either was alien to the defaulting officer or he took it just casually and in
both the cases , he cannot be deemed to have discharged his duties with
sincerity . The disgusting part of the issue is that the erring officer could
not put forth any convincing explanation or the reasons which kept him from
dispensing with the required information.
Section 17 of
the RTI Act clearly lays down a provision of a token fine of Rs.250 each day
till application is received or information is furnished. The limit of the
fine, however, shall not exceed Rs.25000. It clearly states that the PIO
cannot, without a reasonable cause, refuse to receive an application or after
receiving the application, if the information is not furnished within the
prescribed time limit, that shall constitute violation of the Act and invite
imposition of penalty.
We fail to
understand that an officer of the level of KAS being , perhaps not acquainted
with the provisions of the RTI, let
alone the purpose and the rationale behind enactment of this Act. It is only
when the applicant exhausted all his efforts as provided for under the Act that
he approached the State Information Commission preferring an appeal. It is only
when the Commission intervened, did the applicant receive the information
exactly a year after filing of his application, say on June 19, 2017.
The
Commission, however, took a serious note of this willful disregard towards the
implementation of the RTI Act , sought explanation from two officers and
awarded the penalty to the PIO , State Mission Directorate. Taking not a lenient
view in respect of the lapses on the part of the officer concerned in not
complying with the crux of the Act shall, undoubtedly, set an example for
others to take applicants and the information sought seriously so as not to
defeat the very purpose of the Act. A responsive administration is what cannot
be compromised with in any circumstances. The case, under referenc, has
unveiled the non compliance of the provisions of the Transparency Law even
after the enactment of the J&K
RTI Act nine years before and
repeated communiqués of the SIC and General Administration Department have not
been taken seriously at various levels. Such a scenario cannot be and should not be put up with in any manner
whatsoever.