Greater Kashmir: Srinagar: Tuesday, July 24, 2018.
The State
Information Commission (SIC) has asked the government to immediately furnish
the information to the appellant about the compensation paid to the cases
recommended by State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) from January 2000 to August
2017.
State Information Commissioner, Mohammad
Ashraf Mir in his order stated, “State Information Commission has time and
again issued instructions and reminded the public authorities about their
obligation to make these disclosures voluntarily through their respective
departmental websites and update such information regularly”
“However,
with dismay, the commission has observed that these instructions have not been
followed in the manner these ought to have been followed.”
The
appellant, Ghulam Rasool Sheikh of J&K RTI Movement has filed an RTI with
the GAD and home department asking them to furnish details about the
compensation paid to the cases recommended by SHRC, cases that have been
rejected and also are lying pending before the government.
The public
information officer (PIO), general administrative department transferred the
RTI request of the applicant to the PIO, home department under section 6(3) on
27-09-2017 with the request that the information may be directly furnished to
the applicant.
As the
applicant did not receive any information, he filed a first appeal before the
first appellate authority (FAA).
The said
first appeal was disposed of by the FAA, GAD on January 8 dismissing the appeal
of the appellant on the ground that PIO, GAD has provided the information to
the appellant which was available with him vide letter no. GAD (Adm)/38/2017
dated 03-10-2017, while the RTI application has been transferred to the PIO,
home department for providing the rest of the information directly to the
appellant.
Aggrieved by
the response of the FAA, GAD, the appellant filed this second appeal before the
SIC on March 15 with the prayer that the PIO and the FAA be directed to provide
complete and certified copies of information to the appellant.
The PIO, home
department in its response said that the Empowered Committee (EC) constituted
vide Government Order No. 905 of 2008 dated 31-12-2008 with effect from
01-04-2009 till 05-03-2018 have been forwarded to the GAD vide O.M.No.
Home/SHRC/RTI/2018 dated 26-04-2018 and among other things, it has been
conveyed to the GAD that out of 439 cases received during the above period, 213
cases have been rejected by the EC in its various meetings.
During the
hearing, the PIO, home department also informed the commission that only the
part of information related to recommendations of the SHRC cases are dealt with
by the home department whereas the rest of the information sought by the RTI
applicant is dealt with by the GAD.
The SIC,
while directing the government to immediate respond to the RTI, said that the
PIO, GAD shall immediately furnish the information to the appellant in respect
of Srinagar, Budgam, Udhampur, Reasi and Doda districts that has already been
collected by the PIO and in respect of any other district that may have been
received by the PIO in the meantime;
Stating
further, the commission said that the PIO, GAD shall collect the information
from the remaining Deputy Commissioners within a period of four weeks and,
thereafter, consolidate and furnish the same to the appellant within a period
of one week, thus completing the entire process of gathering the information
and decimation of the same to the appellant within a period of five weeks.
.JPG)
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