Daily Excelsior: Jammu: Wednesday, 31 December 2025.
The Jal Shakti (PHE)
Department, Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, has been unequivocally
vindicated by the Central Information Commission (CIC), which has dismissed all
15 RTI complaints filed by Ashok Kumar Parmar (IAS retired), exposing the motivated
and obstructive nature of the allegations levelled against the department.
The CIC categorically upheld the departmental position and recorded that there was no malafide intent, no deliberate withholding of information, and no violation of the RTI Act by the Jal Shakti Department.
The Commission clearly noted that the information sought by Parmar was already available in the public domain on official Government and departmental websites and that the department had fully complied with the law by providing the relevant web links.
The CIC further reaffirmed the settled legal position that it is not the duty of any public authority to create, compile, or fabricate data merely to suit the narrative or suspicions of an applicant. Relying on authoritative Supreme Court judgments, the Commission held, “the RTI Act is confined strictly to disclosure of existing records and cannot be stretched to force departments into generating new datasets or forensic compilations at the cost of governance and public service delivery”.
It is pertinent to highlight that a House Committee has already been constituted to verify the works executed under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and the Committee’s report is still awaited. Notwithstanding this ongoing institutional scrutiny, Parmar chose to appear before the Committee and made sensational allegations of bungling to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore in pipe procurement, whereas official records establish that the actual procurement is approximately Rs 3,000 crore.
The CIC also took note of the fact that the complaints were deeply entangled with personal and service-related grievances of the complainant, which are already pending before appropriate judicial forums. The Commission reiterated in clear terms that the RTI Act is not a weapon for settling personal scores, pressurising departments, or running parallel trials through insinuations and suspicion-driven queries.
It is not out of place to mention that works under the Jal Jeevan Mission have remained halted for nearly last one year, and the sustained campaign of allegations, inflated figures, and motivated complaints have directly undermined the pace of implementation of this flagship public welfare programme meant to provide potable drinking water to households.
After comprehensive examination, the CIC concluded that there was no case whatsoever for imposition of penalty, and accordingly all complaints were dismissed in entirety, delivering a decisive blow to the false narrative sought to be built against the Jal Shakti Department and its officers.
The CIC categorically upheld the departmental position and recorded that there was no malafide intent, no deliberate withholding of information, and no violation of the RTI Act by the Jal Shakti Department.
The Commission clearly noted that the information sought by Parmar was already available in the public domain on official Government and departmental websites and that the department had fully complied with the law by providing the relevant web links.
The CIC further reaffirmed the settled legal position that it is not the duty of any public authority to create, compile, or fabricate data merely to suit the narrative or suspicions of an applicant. Relying on authoritative Supreme Court judgments, the Commission held, “the RTI Act is confined strictly to disclosure of existing records and cannot be stretched to force departments into generating new datasets or forensic compilations at the cost of governance and public service delivery”.
It is pertinent to highlight that a House Committee has already been constituted to verify the works executed under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) and the Committee’s report is still awaited. Notwithstanding this ongoing institutional scrutiny, Parmar chose to appear before the Committee and made sensational allegations of bungling to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore in pipe procurement, whereas official records establish that the actual procurement is approximately Rs 3,000 crore.
The CIC also took note of the fact that the complaints were deeply entangled with personal and service-related grievances of the complainant, which are already pending before appropriate judicial forums. The Commission reiterated in clear terms that the RTI Act is not a weapon for settling personal scores, pressurising departments, or running parallel trials through insinuations and suspicion-driven queries.
It is not out of place to mention that works under the Jal Jeevan Mission have remained halted for nearly last one year, and the sustained campaign of allegations, inflated figures, and motivated complaints have directly undermined the pace of implementation of this flagship public welfare programme meant to provide potable drinking water to households.
After comprehensive examination, the CIC concluded that there was no case whatsoever for imposition of penalty, and accordingly all complaints were dismissed in entirety, delivering a decisive blow to the false narrative sought to be built against the Jal Shakti Department and its officers.
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