Rising
Kashmir: Kargil: Thursday, 24 September 2015.
Inadequate
access to information about the manner of spending of public funds on
development programs meant for underprivileged people was the biggest problem
that the youth and social activists highlighted at a recently concluded RTI
workshop in Kargil.
The two-day
capacity building workshop for Kargil and Zanskar region was organised by
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) in collaboration with the J&K
RTI Movement (J&KRTIM) on 19-20 September, 2015.
More than 65
residents of this region- many of whom are members of the Student Education
Movement of Kargil (SEMOK) and the Youth Action Committee, Kargil also
discussed problems related to the poor implementation of the six-year old
J&K Right to Information Act, 2009 (J&K RTI Act) in the region.
Participants
drafted several RTI applications demanding information about burning issues in
the transport, power, education and tele-communications sectors in Kargil.
Participants
have started submitting these RTI applications to the concerned public
authorities in the Central and State government including the Ladakh Autonomous
Hill Development Council, Kargil (LAHDC-K).
Participants
lamented the fact that very few people in Kargil and Zanskar were aware of
their rights.
While Section
23 of the Act mandates the J&K government to organise public education
programs, so far only civil society organisations had made the effort to teach
the procedures for seeking information under the Act to the people in Kargil.
Although Section 4(1) of the J&K RTI Act requires public authorities to
make a wealth of information accessible to the people voluntarily, due to poor
levels of compliance, people were being compelled to make formal requests for
such information. Participants reported that often Public Information Officers
(PIOs) do not respond to the RTI applications within the 30-day time limit or
provide complete information.
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