Chandigarh Tribune: Jammu: Thursday,
July 28, 2016.
The State
Information Commission (SIC), a primer institution constituted to ensure
transparency in the administration and curb corruption, continues to remain
headless and virtually defunct despite a lapse of almost six months.
The PDP-BJP
government, which has completed more than three months in office, is yet to
initiate the process for appointment of a new Chief Information Commissioner
(CIC) and an Information Commissioner in the three-member SIC.
GR Sufi
completed his term as the CIC on February 29 while the post of one Information
Commissioner had been lying vacant since October last year when Dr SK Sharma
retired.
“It is highly
unfortunate that even after a lapse of six months, the state government has not
initiated the process to appoint new members of the commission. In the absence
of a strong RTI commission, the state bureaucracy does not take RTI pleas
seriously and the common man is taken for granted,” said Raman Sharma, an RTI
activist.
He believed
that the state government was stonewalling transparency in governance. “Then
Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had brought the concept of the RTI Act to
Jammu and Kashmir. The PDP, in alliance with the BJP, is reluctant now to
appoint new commission members. The delay in appointment has made an adverse
impact on overall functioning of the administration,” he said.
J&K was
under the Governor’s rule when the CIC retired. Procedural glitches delayed the
appointment of the new CIC.
Under the
J&K RTI Act, 2009, the appointment of the CIC and Information Commissioner
can be made by the Governor only when the selection committee comprising the
CM, Leader of Opposition and one Cabinet Minister nominated by the CM
recommends the name.
“The PDP-BJP
government has shown no seriousness to ensure transparency in the
administration. This is clear from its insensitive approach towards the
commission, which has virtually turned defunct. The RTI Act, once a great tool
of transparency and accountability, is now dying a slow death because of the
indifferent approach of coalition partners,” said Deepak Sharma, a Jammu-based
activist.
He said it
was astonishing that the PDP was the only party which had declared its election
expenditure during the last Assembly elections, but it had now turned a blind
eye to the prevailing situation.