GreaterKashmir.com:
Srinagar: Wednesday, 12 November 2014.
Until
recently the official website of Jammu & Kashmir Government
(www.jammuandkashmir.nic.in) was in a
state of suspended animation. Earlier it was operational from 2004 till 2011 and
nobody knows what were the reasons of suspending the website. I have criticized
this move of the Government several times in my previous write-ups and from
last couple of months the Jammu & Kashmir Government has launched a new
official website for Chief Minister’s secretariat under the domain name www.jkcmsecretariat.nic.in. Launching this
website is indeed a welcome step “dair aayed durstt aayed”. By suspending the
official website of J&K Government, which indeed was the official website
of CM’s secretariat as well, the Chief Minister’s office has continuously
violated Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act (JK RTI Act 2009) for a
minimum period of three years (2011 to 2014) as the section 4 (1) (b) of
J&K RTI Act 2009 lays emphasis on the digitization of official records and
making the same public via official
websites. During the ongoing assembly election campaign, leaders from ruling
National Conference, particularly Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Senior Ministers
Abdul Rahim Rather, Ali Mohammad Sagar, and even Dr Mustafa Kamal have been
beating drums before public by telling them
about enactment of RTI Act being one of the big achievements of National
Conference Government. As campaigners of Right to Information Act (RTI) from
the last 10 years, we have been closely
working on this act when our state had J&K RTI Act 2004 operational. We had
been lobbying with various political parties including NC about enactment of a stronger version of RTI Act in J&K ,
during the year 2008 when political parties were preparing their election manifestos.
RTI : Just
a lip service
I have now
come to this conclusion that Omar Abdullah lead Government which enacted the
progressive version of RTI Act in Jammu & Kashmir (JK RTI Act 2009) has not
at all been sincere towards implementation of this Act right from March 2009
till date. The pro active disclosure under section 4 of RTI Act by public
authorities was to be made within 120 days from the day RTI law was enacted,
but now 5 years have elapsed not a single Govt organization has fully
implemented just one section of this act (section 4 – pro active
disclosure). What all NC leaders including CM are trying to tell
people related to RTI is mere a lip service . The Government has miserably
failed to organize RTI awareness programmes for general public especially
people belonging to disadvantaged communities . The Government even didn’t
bother to organize proper awareness on RTI Act
for its own officials especially the designated Public Information Officers (PIO’s) and First
Appellate Authorities (FAA’s) . Pertinently the section 23 of the state RTI Act
has laid special emphasis on these
awareness programmes, but Government has not fulfilled all these legal
obligation. How can the Government claim
about RTI, being one of its great achievements ?
Violation
of RTI by CM’s Secretariat :
Chief
Minister himself has been caught on the wrong foot as the recently
launched official website of CM’s
secretariat, www.jkcmsecretariat.nic.in, has clearly indicated that during the
decision making process CM’s office does not follow any notified procedure and
instead they follow the guidelines in accordance with J&K Business Rules .
But we must know that J&K RTI Act 2009 has an overriding effect on all
previous laws which encounter with RTI Act ,
so this applies to J&K Business Rules as well. How can CM’s office
claim to be following the J&K Business Rules when it comes to the
implementation of section 4 (1) of State RTI Act. It clearly indicates that
officials at the helm of affairs in CM’s secretariat are least bothered about
understanding the nuances of the RTI law.
Government has grossly violated the very essence of
J&K Right to Information Act 2009 because the section 4 (1) (b) (iii) of
the State RTI Act stresses upon all the
Public Authorities which includes the CM’s secretariat to proactively disclose how the procedures
are followed during the important decision making processes , including
channels of supervision and
accountability.
Conclusion:
Government
has not only failed to create awareness about RTI Act but most of its
departments, corporations and other semi Government organizations have also not implemented the section 4 of J&K RTI Act including all its sub sections . In addition to it
several attempts have been made by the Government to make RTI Act defunct, redundant and toothless. Isn’t it a fact that
Government amended the J&K RTI Rules
2010 few years back through a cabinet decision and thus interfered in the
functioning of State Information Commission (SIC) , by disallowing SIC to
operate independently ? In nutshell the
Government can no way claim that enactment of J&K RTI Act 2009 has been
their achievement. If some activists , citizens , journalists , educated youth
, retired Govt officials etc are using
this law today in J&K the credit only goes to civil society groups , print and electronic media as they have
created rigorous awareness about this
law through various means . The State Information Commission (SIC) particularly the Chief Information Commissioner has also played a vital role in creating RTI
awareness, inspite of the fact that
SIC as an institution is not legally
bound to create such awareness programmes.
.JPG)
.JPG)
