Kashmir News Service: Srinagar: Thursday, March 22, 2018.
“RTI is like
a ten Rupee PIL in the hands of citizens who can use it to seek and obtain
information about public interest matters”, said Central Information
Commissioner Prof. M. Sridhar Acharyulu while addressing a gathering RTI
activists, academics, lawyers, journalists and students here.
Speaking at a
public event organised by J&K RTI Movement (led by Dr. Shaikh Ghulam
Rasool) and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, to celebrate 14 years of RTI
in J&K, at the Centre for Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir,
Prof. Acharyulu said, RTI is a great tool for empowering citizens. He
appreciated the enthusiastic manner in which activists were using the RTI Act
in J&K to demand greater transparency and accountability in Government,
especially in far flung villages of the State.
He urged the
academic community and transparency advocates to analyse the decisions of
Courts and Information Commissions to assess whether they are in tune with the
letter and spirit of the RTI Act.
He lamented
the fact that while it has become commonplace for many Governments to challenge
in Courts, decisions of Information Commissions directing disclosure, citizens
are not able to challenge refusals due to lack of legal assistance and
inadequate resources.
Participants
unanimously endorsed Prof. Acharyulu’s call to make political parties in
J&K transparent. Even though the CIC had declared six national political
parties public authorities udner the Central RTI Act in 2013, they have
remained stubbornly non-compliant till date.
Wajahat
Habibullah, former Chief Information Commissioner, CIC and Chairperson, CHRI,
said that under the RTI Act, all information was required to be disclose unless
exempt under Section 8.
He urged
Governments to appoint sincere and honest candidates as Information
Commissioners from other fields of specialisations mentioned in the Act instead
of only retired civil servants. He expressed disappointment over the fact that
no civil society representative had been appointed as Chief Information
Commissioner anywhere, yet.
Habibullah
said that there was no mechanism to enforce suo motu disclosure provisions in
the RTI Act because of which, people are compelled to file RTI applications for
information that public authorities should have disclosed voluntarily.
Prominent RTI
activist, Advocate Irfan Hafiz Lone from Baramulla appreciated the efforts of
the J&K RTI Movement to groom RTI activists in every district of J&K.
He emphasised that transparency is a prerequisite for the rule of law and RTI
is an antidote to check corruption – the mother of all problems of governance.
He pointed out that the J&K RTI Act contained the important democratic
principle that information which cannot be denied to Parliament or State
Legislature cannot be denied to any citizen. However officials often ignore
this principle while dealing with RTI applications from citizens.
Presenting
the preliminary findings of an analysis of more than 250 decisions of the
J&K State Information Commission issued between April 2017 and January
2018, Adeela Firdous, Sumaila Qureshi and Naveed Bukhtiyar, Law students of KU
and Shikha Chhibbar, Programme Officer, CHRI, pointed out that more than 58% of
the appeals and complaints related to matters of public interest.
This finding
explodes the myth being propagated by some officials that RTI is used by people
more for redressing personal grievances. They also pointed out that while the
J&KSIC had issued penalty showcause notices in 19 cases, penalty was yet to
be imposed on any officer.
In fact, in
more than 46% cases they studied, penalty should have been imposed as the PIO
had simply not replied to the RTI applications or had refused to comply with
the directions issued by the first appellate authorities to disclose the
information.
This study
was undertaken by the KU students during their internship at CHRI in February,
2018. They pointed out that only 7% of the cases were filed before the
J&KSIC by women, showing the poor levels of awareness about RTI among them.
Dr. Shaikh
Ghulam Rasool invited students and conscientious citizens to join the RTI
Movement in the State and use the law to expose corruption and instances of
mal-governance in the State.
He pointed
out that the solidarity feeling which unites the members of the movement is a
major reason why there are no deaths of RTI activists in J&K. As of now 68
RTI activists have been allegedly murdered for seeking information about
wrongdoing in Government in other parts of India.
Several grass
roots level activists from Budgam, Kathua, Bandipora and Baramulla shared their
stories of successful use of RTI to make government transparent and accountable
which served as an inspiration to students and other participants.
Prof. GN
Khaki, Director, Centre for Central Asian Studies (CCAS) welcomed the gathering
and invited J&K RTI Movement and CHRI to hold more such collaborative
events in future with the Centre. Dr. Fayaz Lone Asst. Professor, CCAS and
Venkatesh Nayak, Programme Coordinator, CHRI moderated the event. (KNS)
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