Kashmir Reader: Srinagar: Tuesday, September
18, 2018.
The Jammu & Kashmir state enacted its
own J&K RTI Act on 20 March 2009 that is, the J&K RTI ACT 2009. The
central RTI act is applicable on Central offices functioning in state. A draft
bill was tabled on 7th of March 2009, and passed by the legislative assembly
and the Legislative council by 12th of March, 2009. The rules to the act were
gazetted on 6th of June 2009. After being gazetted , the Jammu and Kashmir
state Government appointed Public Information Officers (PIOs) and Assistant
Public information officers (APIOs) as first appellant authorities. The Act
repealed and replaced the erstwhile J&K RTI Act, 2004 and The J&K RTI
Act, 2008. The Act is based closely upon the Central Right to Information Act,
2005. Like all RTI legislation, it is intended to provide citizens of the state
of Jammu and Kashmir with a mandate mechanism for obtaining Government records.
But, the irony is that Jammu and Kashmir
is the only region where the RTI Act conspicuously failed to create any
enthusiasm, as a number of cases are still pending and it had been reported
that the information seeker’s here vehemently refuted to provide any
information under RTI Act by various officials of Government Departments and
Allied Institutes. As the information seekers who had filled the litigation
under RTI Act, had taken their concerns into the offices of concerned
authorities by representations, but still these officials had not taken any
cognizance and the grievances still so far have remained unanswered. It seems
like that the J&K RTI Act is completely lagging rather than implementing
its basic purpose, as number of RTI applicants have been frozen by concerned
departments, by not providing information to the information seekers in a legal
way.
Recently, I visited to the administrative
office, where I had witnessed that the information seeker was in conversation
with the official, who was dealing with such cases. The information seeker
wanted to enquire about the delay in information processing. Instead of
accepting the facts and settling or solving the issue, the official threw a
tantrum and traumatized the information seeker. Watching this immature attitude
of the official, put me in great distress: how these employees are spoiling the
credibility of their own institution?
In a number of cases, the information
seekers were traumatized and the officials used abusive language rather than
solving or settling the issue.
In contrast, various local news papers
have published the news items regarding the unholy attitude and negligence
shown by various government departments to various RTI applications. Recently,
an English daily had reported that despite the orders by the Honorable High
Court, the state Government had failed to compensate the Tosa Maidan firing
range victims. Last year, on hearing a Public Interest Litigation PIL, the Division
bench of Honorable High Court had directed the Union and State Government to
provide compensation to affected victims. But, the fact is that the information
provided to an information seeker Irfan Ali Banka , who is chairman of J&K
RTI Foundation, revealed that till now the compensation has not been given to
affected families.
According to print media reports, Deputy
Commissioner, Budgam, has written to the Secretary to Government Department of
Disaster Management Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction and sought
guidance/instructions for compensation of the affected victims. But, this has
not happened till now.
Some information seekers have also taken
to social Media to express their disappointment about their experiences with
the officials of various Government Departments and allied agencies. The
concerned Government officials must know that they are the part of their
institution and the public must be treated in a dignified manner. Even though,
it would be wrong to paint everyone with same brush, the majority of the
officials in Government Departments, Allied Agencies do it on daily basis. It
would be better for J&K Government, to retain all collective focus on RTI
applications. There is also a dire need for making strict laws, for such unhealthy
behaviour shown by the officials while denying the information to information
seekers, so that law can take its own course.
(The author is a Srinagar based freelance
Journalist and a member of J&K RTI Foundation. He can be reached at:
peerzadakhalid1545@gmail.com)
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