State Times: Jammu: Saturday, August
20, 2016.
Expressing
grave concern over the fast collapsing RTI Institutions in the State, Harsh Dev
Singh, Chairman JKNPP and former Minister, has blamed the BJP-PDP for making
the said progressive piece of legislation in the State almost defunct.
He said that
out of the three members of State Information Commission (SIC) two including
CIC had retired months back and the lone Information Commissioner was due to retire
within a month or so but the government had failed to initiate any process for
reconstitution of the said SIC. He regretted that repeated calls from the civil
Society, RTI activists and journalists for appointment of Information
Commissioners and for strengthening the RTI mechanism, the State Government had
failed to initiate any action thus allowing the RTI enactment to die its own
death. Ridiculing the tall claims of the government of good governance,
transparency and accountability, Singh observed that the single most powerful
legislation on transparency was being sabotaged by the government itself. He
also said that not only had the government turned a blind eye to the structural
shortcomings in the Act and its implementation but had also allowed vested
interests and regressive forces to defeat the path and purpose of the most
potent law against corruption. He further said that the enactment of the RTI
Act had generated a lot of hope amongst the common masses especially the
disadvantaged sections and aggrieved citizens.
He emphasized
that there were widespread expectations that traditional electoral democracy
would be transformed into participative democracy.
He said that
the government had also made tall claims that defective elective system would be
metamorphosed and the promise of democracy actualised. He said that the people
expected that the time bound provision of information under the Act would not
only ensure accountability but also curb corruption. Regretting utter lack of
accountability in the present dispensation coupled with growth of patronized
corruption, Singh attributed the malaise to the extremely in-effective RTI
mechanism in the State.
Lambasting
the apathy shown by the bureaucrats and other government functionaries towards
the RTI Act in the absence of stern punitive measures, Singh said that there
were ample examples to show the contemptuous disregard of the RTI applications
of information seekers by the said officers.
He said that
there were several instances where the higher authorities and Administrative
Department had been forwarding the RTI applications to hundreds of their
subordinates merely to create confusion despite the onus lying upon the
administrative departments and these top bureaucrats to provide the
information. He said that vague replies were being given in several others
cases only to evade, avoid and conceal the information. Likewise, he said, the
senior officers often sheltered their subordinates despite proven instances of
violation of the Act. He said that a defunct SIC further added to the confusion
as a single Information Commissioner, for the entire State only amounted to a
cruel joke with the SIC. Blaming the incumbent government for sabotaging the
Act, Singh said that the ministers and MLAs particularly those of BJP believed
that while transparency was good for others, they should be left free and
unquestioned. He said that the BJP’s resistance to RTI Act became evident from
the fact where one of the BJP MLAs moved a Bill in the recently concluded
Assembly session for amendment of J and K RTI Act and alleged misuse of the Act
by the so called “unscrupulous elements”. He claimed that the mover of the said
Bill was the same MLA who called himself RTI activist before becoming MLA and
had moved unlimited RTI applications against various government departments. He
said that it was ironical that the same BJP MLA was new speaking of misuse of
RTI when his own dirty laundry had been exposed before the public through RTI.
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