Greater
Kashmir: Srinagar: Tuesday, 24 March 2015.
On March
20th, Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act (RTI) completed six years of
its enactment. A progressive RTI legislation was enacted by the state
legislature on 20th of March 2009 soon after Omar Abdullah had taken over as
Chief Minister of J&K. Bringing erstwhile J&K Right to Information Act
2004 at par with Central RTI Act 2005 was part of NC’s 2008 election manifesto,
which they indeed fulfilled. But with the passage of time, when the corruption
cases got exposed and penalty proceedings were initiated against the erring
Government officers, the same Government which had enacted a progressive RTI
law made amendments to its rules which severely affected the independent
functioning and autonomy of the State Information Commission (SIC). When Omar
Abdullah Government amended J&K RTI Rules 2010 vide SRO No: 279 dated :
30.8.2012, main opposition party - Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) -, civil
society, RTI activists, & media criticized that move. NC’s main ally
Congress which was headed by Saifudin Soz as well as Chief Information
Commissioner (CIC) G R Sufi has shown their anger towards amendments made in
the 2010 RTI rules. As there is change of guard in the state under the
leadership of Mufti Mohammad Syed, people of state are now eagerly waiting to
see a change especially vis a vis strengthening of transparency laws and
institutions which includes RTI as well.
PDP’s
promise of empowering transparency Institutions:
Just before
the recent state assembly elections Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) released its
manifesto cum vision document titled “ An Aspirational Agenda”. The document
contains a separate chapter titled “ Reforming the Government “ which promises
for proactive, accountable and transparent governance. The party promised lot
many things which will be analysed and discussed in future but the important
promise made by PDP in this document is titled as “Empowering of Institutions”
. The party has promised to give genuine autonomy to State Accountability
Commission, State Vigilance Commission, and the Organisation that deals with
Right to Information (RTI) - State Information Commission (SIC).
2010 and
2012 RTI Rules:
The RTI rules
of 2010 contained considerable amount of details but under J&K RTI Rules
2012 there is no guidance on how different matters, like the functioning of
State Information Commission (SIC) Secretariat, procedure to be adopted in case
of non-compliance of SIC’s orders and other vital matters- will be handled.
The State
Information Commission (SIC) could take action under the old Rules (2010) if a
public authority did not comply with its orders. The new rules delete that
provision and this was intentionally done just to make the SIC a lame duck. The
appellant under these circumstances will have no option but to file a writ in
J&K High Court to seek enforcement of an order of the Information
Commission. How many people can avail the expensive and time consuming option
of filing writ petitions in High Court when the SIC’s orders are not
implemented by Government agencies (public authorities) ? This is continuously
happening and I have dozens of examples with me where the SIC gave orders to
Government departments (public authorities) for revealing the information under
RTI but the orders of SIC were not at all implemented.
The old Rules
contained several provisions about the structure and the working of the
Information Commission- such as division of labour, working hours, vacations
etc. The new Rules delete all these provisions as well. Under old rules
Government had to provide the staff to SIC in consultation with them, but the
2012 RTI rules delete these provisions. Earlier the senior officer not below
the rank of Secretary or Special Secretary to Government was assigned the job
of Secretary SIC , but now Government deputes even junior officers to function
as Secretary.
Conclusion
:
PDP through
its press statements, public meetings, discussions and press conferences has
always supported to strengthen transparency institutions of state and to
empower the RTI regime especially State Information Commission (SIC) and so has
the BJP promised to act against corruption and to deliver good governance. PDP
has now come to power with the support of BJP through a written document and it
is now time to deliver. One can understand coalition constraints and I am sure
that BJP which is PDP’s partner in Government will have no issues when it comes
to ensuring good and accountable governance. The initiatives to curb corruption
is not an issue related to settling of 1947 refugees or implementing PDP’s self
rule programme, or releasing of pro independence and anti India leadership of
Kashmir. The matter is very much within the ambit of Minimum Common Programme
and the Government should without any hesitation start its offensive on
corruption and giving autonomy to institutions like State Accountability
Commission (SAC), State Vigilance Commission (SVC) and State Information
Commission. The pending cases of sanctions for prosecution must be disposed off
by General Administration Department (GAD). A massive awareness campaign on RTI
and voluntary disclosure of information should be started as Government is
legally bound to do the same under section 23 and section 4 (1) (b) of J&K
RTI Act 2009 and during this campaign Civil Society groups and NGO’s should be
taken on board by the authorities.
PDP has
promised genuine autonomy to State Accountability Commission, State Vigilance
Commission, and the Organisation that deals with Right to Information (RTI) -
State Information Commission (SIC).
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