State Information Commission likely to become defunct soon

Chandigarh Tribune‎‎: Jammu: Thursday, November 10, 2016.

The future of the State Information Commission (SIC) is uncertain as the incumbent PDP-BJP government does not seems to be interested in filling the vacant posts of Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioner.

There is only one person in the commission, Nazir Ahmed, who is working as State Information Commissioner, but he, too, will retire by the end of this month.

As the State Information Commission is heading to become defunct, the real purpose of the Right to Information (RTI) Act is losing its sheen and various government departments are hardly concerned about providing details under the Act. There is no accountability of government departments and citizens are not getting the details required under the law. Jammu and Kashmir was the first state to bring the RTI Act in 2004 and the man behind bringing the RTI Act was former Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed and paved way for people to seek information under this law from government departments. In 2009, the Act was upgraded and brought at a par with the Central Act of 2005. From 2009 to 2014 over 73,000 application under the RTI Act were received by all government departments and most of them were disbursed also.

But 12 years after Mufti brought this Act, his party’s government is in place in the state and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti is at the helm of affairs, but the government hasn’t taken steps to make the commission functional. Sources in the government said the government had been hiding behind the current unrest in the Kashmir valley where, since July 8, normal life has come to a standstill and government departments failed to witness full attendance and hadn’t appointed Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioners.

“We had suggested the government to bring a simple ordinance and extend the term of former Chief Information Commissioner GR Sofi, who was appointed on February 28, 2011, and retired in February this year, so that working of the commission is not affected till they appoint new Chief Information Commissioner and State Information Commissioners. But no heed was paid to our suggestion,” he added.