Daily Excelsior: Jammu: Tuesday,
04 August 2020.
Most of
the Public Information Officers (PIOs) in the departments of the Jammu and
Kashmir Union Territory are not showing seriousness in ensuring voluntary
compliance to the provisions of Right to Information Act vis-à-vis facilitating
inspection of record and rendering assistance to the applicants in getting
information, which otherwise is not readily available with them.
These
vital aspects of the transparency law receive due attention of the Public
Information Officers only after the Central Information Commission (CIC) either
passes strictures against them or issue explicit orders for compliance.
The
Central Right to Information Act, 2005 states: “The information accessible
under this Act and which is held by or under the control of any public
authority includes the right to inspection of work, documents and records”.
Moreover,
dissemination of information has been described as making known or
communicating the information to the public through notice boards, newspapers,
public announcements, media broadcast, internet or any other means including
inspection of offices of any public authority.
All this
clearly indicates that Public Information Officers are supposed to facilitate
the inspection of available record as sought by the applicant under the RTI Act
on mutually agreed date and time if by any reason furnishing copies of the
record sought by the applicant is not possible.
Moreover,
this option can also be exercised in case the applicant expresses
dissatisfaction over the reply furnished by the PIO in response to his or her
applicant.
Similarly,
Sub-Section 3 of Section 6 of the RTI Act states: “Where an application is made
to a public authority requesting for an information, which is held by another
public authority or the subject matter of which is more closely connected with
the functions of another public authority, the public authority to which such
applicant is made, shall transfer the application or such part of it as may be
appropriate to that public authority and inform the applicant immediately about
such transfer”.
“The
transfer of an application shall be made as soon as practicable but in no case
later than five days from the date of receipt of the application”, proviso to
Sub-Section 3 of Section 6 of the RTI Act reads.
Moreover,
the Public Information Officer on receipt of a request under Section 6 of the
Act shall, as expeditiously as possible, and in any case within 30 days either
provide information on payment of prescribed fee or reject the request for any
of the specified reasons.
However,
these provisions of the transparency law aimed at facilitating inspection of
record and rendering assistance to the applicants in getting information are
not being taken seriously by majority of the Public Information Officers in the
Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
“Instead
of facilitating the inspection of record the PIOs simply try to dodge the
applicants by giving lame excuses but when the applicants get orders from the
Central Information Commission the PIOs immediately extend cooperation for
inspection of record”, they further said while disclosing that the CIC has
passed numerous orders during the past few months expressing serious concern
over lack of voluntary compliance to the provision vis-à-vis records
inspection.
“There
should not have been any hesitation on the part of the PIOs in facilitating
inspection of relevant record by the applicants”, read the common observation
made by the Central Information Commission in such orders.
As far
as facilitating applicants in obtaining information from other public authority
is concerned, the PIOs simply mention: “The information sought doesn’t pertain
to this office as such cannot be provided”.
However,
the Central Information Commission has, in numerous orders, observed, “though
some PIOs adequately inform the applicants regarding unavailability of the
information. But despite being aware of the probable holder of the information
they don’t transfer the RTI application to the concerned public authority in
total disregard to the provisions of the transparency law”.
“The
Government of J&K Union Territory must pass explicit directions to all the
Public Information Officers for paying serious attention towards these vital
provisions of the transparency law as the same will not only facilitate the
information seekers but will also reduce the burden on the Central Information
Commission”, sources stressed.
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