Kashmir Times: Jammu: Thursday, 01 May 2014.
Chief
Minister’s Office has snubbed Chief Information Commissioner G R Sufi by not
responding to his DO letter for more than four months.
G R Sufi, the
Chief Information Commissioner on December 26, 2013 had written a DO (Demi
Official) Letter to the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Surprisingly the Chief
Minister’s Office did not respond to the letter, it even did not bother to send
any acknowledgement note normally issued whenever it received any communication
from a political dignitary or persons occupying important position like a
Commissioner of a statuary body or Chairman of a Board.
The
Commission itself refused to share the full contents of the letter written by
Jammu and Kashmir State Chief Information Commissioner G R Sufi to RTI
applicant stating it as ‘personal information.’ Only a portion of it was
released by the Public Information Officer of the Commission in response to an
application filed by RTI activist Raman Sharma under the RTI Act and rest of
the information was denied citing it as personal information having no
relationship to any public activity quoting section 8 (i) of the JK RTI Act
2009.
In the RTI
reply, the Commission informed the applicant that the letter was sent through
courier but no response or acknowledgement was received by it from the CMO so
far.
In his letter
dated December 26, 2013, the Chief Information Commissioner G R Sufi had
requested the Chief Minister to direct the Secretary, General Administration
Department (GAD) to have an interaction with the State Information Commission
(SIC) to initiate the process of reviving Right to Information Rules (2010)
which were amended and replaced in the year 2012 by issuing an SRO no 279.
Through this
letter, Sufi had expressed his displeasure over the amendments in the RTI Rules
and had submitted, “Unfortunately these rules were abruptly repealed on the
main plank of bringing the rules at par with central rules. This reasoning was
quite flawed as the present legislature had been vigorously ensuring that it
exercised all powers vested in it under the Constitution of the state read with
Union Constitution. If the legislature enacts its own substantive law (JKRTI
2009), it is logical that rules also to be that of creation of state executive
keeping in view of the exigencies and special conditions of our state.”
While sharing
the letter of G R Sufi with media, RTI applicant Raman Sharma also expressed
his resentment over the attitude of the Chief Minister’s Office. “It (CMO)
should have responded to the letter of a statuary and quasi judicial authority
like Chief Information Commissioner, who as per Section 13 of Jammu and Kashmir
RTI Act 2009 has the status and rank equivalent to that of an Election
Commissioner,” Raman said.
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