Daily Excelsior: Srinagar:
Wednesday, August 29, 2018.
Newly appointed
Governor of Jammu & Kashmir S P Malik soon after assuming office in
Srinagar said that his priority would be to ensure good governance in state.
Good governance cannot be achieved unless citizens of state are not involved in
the process that can help authorities to achieve this goal. Infact, we have
laws that empower people to participate in the process of good and effective
governance and seek answers from Government using these laws, but inspite of
having these laws people still feel disempowered and good governance,
accountability and transparency only remains a distant dream for the citizens
of Jammu & Kashmir.
Last year Jammu &
Kashmir Government issued a circular that empowered Directorate of Information
and Public Relations (DIPR) by making it the nodal agency for implementation of
sub sections (2) , (3) and (4) of section 23 of J&K RTI Act 2009. As per
the order issued by the Secretary, General Administration Department (GAD), the
Director Information J&K has been designated as Nodal Officer for
implementation of the said provisions of the state RTI law.This order was
issued on the advise of the then Chief Information Commissioner Khurshid Ahmad
Ganai who is now Advisor to Governor.
In the Government order
No: 1232-GAD of 2017 Dated : 26.9.2017 there is mention of sub section 2, 3 and
4 which is to be implemented by the Directorate of Information and Public
Relations. On the other hand sub section 1 of the same section has been
bypassed and there is no mention about it at all. Infact I brought the issue
into notice of Mr Ganai soon after the order was issued.
Sub Section 1 of
section 23 of J&K RTI Act 2009 is the most important provisions in the
J&K RTI law as this sub section stresses on Government for RTI awareness
building , training of Government officials, developing educational programmes
on RTI for general public especially the disadvantaged communities. Why this
sub section has been bypassed is a matter of concern for people in general and
especially for the RTI activists.
Section 23 of State
RTI Act
Government is under
legal obligation to create awareness about Right to Information Act among
general masses. Stress is given for RTI awareness among those people who belong
to disadvantaged communities living in remote and underdeveloped areas of the
state. It is not the duty of State Information Commission (SIC) to organize RTI
awareness camps ,workshops and seminars but is the duty of Government to manage
all these activities. Section 23 (1) of J&K RTI Act 2009 reads as :
“The Government may to
the extent of availability of financial and resources a) develop and organize
educational programmes to advance the understanding of the public , in
particular of disadvantaged communities as to how to exercise the rights
contemplated under the act b) encourage public authorities to participate in
the development and organization of programmes referred to in clause (a) and to
undertake such programmes themselves c) promote timely and effective
dissemination of accurate information by public authorities about their
activities d) train Public Information Officers (PIOs) of public authorities
and produce relevant training material for the use of public authorities.
The Government in its
order dated 26/9/2017 did not assign the awareness job to Directorate of
Information but instead directed it to implement other three sub sections ie 2,
3, 4 of section 23. To implement sub section 2 of section 23, Government was supposed
to prepare a user guide in urdu (official language of J&K) that would help
people understand the basics of RTI Act. This guide was to be prepared within
18 months (1 ½ year) from the commencement of the J&K RTI Act 2009. It is
now more than 9 years since RTI Act is enacted in J&K and the user guide on
RTI is still not available . In addition to it sub section 3 & 4 focusses
on publishing of RTI guidelines such as details of PIOs , First Appellate
Authorities (FAAs), their office addresses, phone numbers , emails , ensuring
voluntary disclosure of information by authorities and updating the same at
regular intervals. Almost one year has elapsed since the order was issued and
Directorate of Information assigned the job but they seem to have done nothing.
Workshops on RTI
If the Directorate of
Information and Public Relations (DIPR) has been assigned the job of
implementing three sub sections (2,3,4) of section 23 of J&K RTI Act 2009 ,
can Government clarify who will implement the sub section 1 of the same
section? Even people don’t know what has DIPR done vis a vis implementation of
sub sections 2, 3 and 4 of Section 23 of J&K RTI Act 2009 ? More than 9
years have elapsed since RTI law got enacted in J&K and no Government
organization has been assigned the job of undertaking RTI awareness? Government
claims that Institute of Management Public Administration and Rural Development
(IMPARD) organizes RTI workshops for Government officers. This is true and I
appreciate IMPA for its work , but how many such workshops have been organized
by this institution from last 9 years ? From 2011 to 2015 around 75 workshops
were conducted by IMPARD for Govt officers (FAAs and PIOs) but from last 3
years mere 3 to 4 workshops have been conducted . This was revealed by IMPARD
itself before J&K High Court after our organization Jammu & Kashmir RTI
Movement filed a PIL on implementation of section 23 of J&K RTI Act 2009.
Conclusion
Is IMPA creating
awareness among the disadvantaged communities? If not IMPARD then who will do
this job ? I raised this issue several times and recently I along with a
delegation from RTI Movement met with B B Vyas Advisor to Governor. We
suggested him to outsource the work to civil society groups and NGOs. He
forwarded the case to Chief Secretary and we are yet to know what has been the
outcome of our suggestion ? Majority of First Appellate Authorities (FAAs)
under RTI law are not aware about their role. Same is the case with designated
Public Information Officers (PIOs).
How can Government do
all this work themselves ? Many designated FAAs who are Special
Secretaries/Additional Secretaries to Government, Commissioners of various
bodies, Directors, Chief Engineers, DC’s, SPs, Additional DC’s, Superintending
Engineers have been reprimanded by State Information Commission (SIC) on
various occasions as they were unaware about their role as First Appellate
Authority (FAA). RTI is the only tool to ensure accountability and good
governance in our state .If Governor Malik overhauls the institution of RTI, I am
sure we will get very good results in the coming months and years. This
overhauling includes filling up the vacancies in State Information Commission
(SIC) ie to appoint Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and Information
Commissioner as soon as possible.
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