Iftikhar Gilani; Tehelka; Friday, December 24, 2010,
According to an RTI response, no money spent on training or awareness-building.
The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) government has spent nearly Rs 83 lakh on the maintenance of the office of the State Information Commission (SIC) from the time it was constituted in October 2009, even without actually putting it in place.
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| Chief Minister J.K. Omar Abdullah |
The state government led by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is yet to appoint heads and members for the SIC, the Vigilance Commission and the Accountability Commission, touted as the backbone of official accountability, since it came to power two years ago. However, large sums have allegedly been extracted from the state treasury in the name of maintenance of these defunct offices.
In response to a right to information (RTI) application submitted by Jammu-based social activist Raman Sharma, the government reply implies that money has spent on everything from buying rugs to paying salaries and other such paraphernalia. Evidently, hardly any thought has gone into the more crucial areas like generating awareness, personnel training or even properly constituting the commission.
The J&K SIC was officially constituted on October 19, 2009, and an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Gazzanfer Hussein, was appointed as its first secretary. The government also announced the appointment of Wajahat Habibullah as the first state chief information commissioner. This was later revoked in February 2010 because the central government could not find his replacement in Delhi, where he was heading the Central Information Commission. Since then, the J&K SIC remains headless and non-functional. During this period, the commission established offices at Srinagar, and also rented space in a posh locality in Jammu. It was also decided that the commission was to follow the secretariat (darbar), and function in Srinagar for six summer months and then move to the winter capital Jammu for the following six months.
During this period the non-functional commission has spent an amount of Rs 83 lakh, even without deposing on a single application. During 2009-10, Rs 21.29 lakh was spent on salaries, while Rs 53.62 lakh was spent in the 2010-11 fiscal until October. An amount of Rs 2.16 lakh has been spent on telephone and internet bills. Another Rs 2.5 lakh was spent on the movement of office from Srinagar to Jammu and vice-versa as per the movement of the capital.
"It's a shame. The absence of information commissioners makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to ensure a thorough implementation of the act. The taxpayers' money is being spent on a defunct commission," said Raman Sharma.
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