Daily
Excelsior: Jammu: Friday, May 10, 2019.
Sending
a clear and loud message that they are not comfortable with the transparency
law, almost all the Government departments are showing reluctance to furnish
annual information about implementation of Jammu and Kashmir Right to
Information Act. Most shockingly, they are even not responding to the repeated
communiqués of the State Information Commission.
No
improvement in situation even after GAD’s intervention They don’t respond to
our repeated communiques: IC
The
Sub-Section 1 of Section 22 of the J&K Right to Information Act states:
“The State Information Commission shall, as soon as practicable after the end
of each year, prepare a report on the implementation of the provisions of the
Act during that year and forward a copy thereof to the Government”.
Similarly,
Sub-Section 2 of Section 22 states: “Each department shall, in relation to the
Public Authorities within its jurisdiction, collect and provide such
information to the State Information Commission as required to prepare the
report and comply with the requirements concerning the furnishing of
information and keeping of records”.
Keeping
these provisions of the J&K Right to Information Act in mind, the Secretary
in the State Information Commission vide Communication No.SIC/CO/
Adm/M&R/2018-19/494 dated March 18, 2019 requested the
Commissioner/Secretary to Government, General Administration Department to
advise all the Administrative Secretaries to submit the information to the
Commission as mandated under Section 22 of the RTI Act before April 10, 2019
positively.
Even
proforma for submission of information by the Administrative Departments to the
Commission was forwarded to the Commissioner/Secretary, General Administration
Department whereby information vis-a-vis number of RTI applications received
and disposed of by the Administrative Department/Heads of the Departments
during the year 2018-19; number of RTI applications rejected pursuant to
different sections of the RTI Act; number of First Appeals received and
disposed of by the First Appellate Authority under Section 16(1) of the Act and
amount of application free/additional free collected under the Act, was sought.
“However,
till date there is no compliance from majority of the Government departments”,
official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “the departments are supposed to
furnish such information voluntarily at the end of every year but it is a
matter of serious concern that they are not responding even after receiving
official communication of the Information Commission through General
Administration Department”.
They
further said, “this is not for the first time that departments are showing
reluctance in furnishing mandatory information to the Information Commission
and this situation is prevailing ever since the enactment of J&K RTI Act”,
adding “by not paying heed to the requests of the Information Commission those
at the helm of affairs in the Government departments have sent a loud and clear
message that they are not comfortable with the transparency law”.
When
contacted, State Information Commissioner, Mohammad Ashraf Mir said, “the
objective behind preparation of annual report by the Commission is to assess
and inform the Government about the level of implementation of transparency
law”. He added: “It is really a matter of serious concern that Government
departments are not feeling comfortable with the RTI Act even several years
after its enactment”.
“What
to talk of showing voluntarily compliance to the provisions of Section 22 of
the Act and acting on the advice of the General Administration Department, most
of the departments either don’t respond to our direct communiqués or comes up
with information after numerous letters and telephonic calls”, he said in
response to a question, adding “the annual report of the Commission gets
delayed only because of non-cooperation from the Government departments”.
The
importance of the annual report of the Commission can be gauged from the fact
that it is aimed at revealing information vis-a-vis number of requests made to
each Public Authority, number of appeals referred to the Commission for review,
the nature of the appeals and the outcome of the same and particulars of
disciplinary action taken against the officers for not implementing the Act
etc.
In
the annual report, the Information Commission based on the details received
from the departments make necessary recommendations to the Government for
further strengthening transparency mechanism so that real objective of the RTI
Act is achieved in letter and spirit.
.JPG)
.JPG)
