Two years on, govt departments yet to adhere to mandatory Section 4(1) of RTI Act
SYED ALI SAFVI
SRINAGAR, Oct 22: Notwithstanding appointments, albeit delayed, of two state information commissioners, the state government has been doing little to implement RTI Act in letter and spirit in the state.
Even as the state government boasts of being the pioneer in enacting RTI Act, the government departments are not fully adhering to this Act.
Call it lack of information or halfhearted implementation of RTI Act, a major chunk of government departments are yet to adhere to the section 4 (1) of the J&K RTI Act 2009, which calls for proactive disclosure.
According to the RTI Act 2009, all departments, ministries, boards, corporations, companies and banks set up or controlled by the state or central governments are duty bound to voluntarily give, within 125 days of commencement of the Act, information regarding name, designation, powers, duties, responsibilities, and salaries of all the officers and employees; list of all categories of all the records available in their offices; proposed budget, allocation of funds and reports about their spending; the manner of implementation of subsidy schemes, list of beneficiaries and amount of funds sanctioned to them; name and designation of Public Information Officers (PIOs), Assistant Public Information Officers (APIOs), a directory of its official employees, et al.
The act says that every information should be disseminated widely through notice boards, newspapers, public announcements, media broadcasts, internet or any other means.
J&K RTI Act was enforced in the state with effect from March 20, 2009. Forget 125 days, the state government has failed to ensure implementation of proactive (voluntary) disclosure even after more than two years.
Interestingly, most of the PIOs do not have even a slight idea about the proactive disclosure.
The PIOs, according to the Act, are duty bound to give all information to the applicant on demand. Moreover, applicants need not to submit a written application or pay application fees for seeking information that comes under the ambit of voluntary disclosure.
Convener J&K RTI Movement, Raja Muzaffar, had filed an RTI application with General Administrative Department (GAD), seeking information about the details of government offices which have adhered to the proactive disclosure, section 4(1) of RTI Act 2009.
Although only eight per cent of the departments have responded to the application, but the response given by the concerned PIOs is appalling.
Replying to the question of implementation of Section 4(1) in the department, PIO Directorate of Geology and Mining, who is also Deputy Director Administration Geology and Mining department, vide letter no C-Adm/DGM/RTI/JC/12-14, dated 26-09-2011 writes: “This departments has received 11 applications under RTI Act and all of them stand disposed off.”
To a similar query, Assistant General Manager cum PIO, J&K Handloom Development Corporation vide letter number HDC/ADM/17/707-08, dated 07-10-2011 replies: “J&K Handloom Development Corporation has updated its website with necessary information about working of the corporation.”
The PIO further writes in his reply that the “digitization of records does not apply to Handloom Development Corporation”.
Similarly, PIO Transport department, civil secretariat Srinagar, vide letter no TR-24/GNL/RTI/2006, dated 22-09-2011 writes: “motor Vehicle department, State Motor Garages, State Road Transport Corporation have received so many applications under RTI Act and all of them have been disposed by the concerned PIOs within stipulated period of time”.
The PIO transport department has admitted that the department has not yet digitized its records.
Regarding implementation of proactive disclosure, PIO Soil and Water Management (Command Area development Jammu) writes: “Proactive disclosure pertains to GAD, hence submitted for favour of information”.
PIO Directorate of Horticulture Kashmir writes in his reply vide PUR/231/111/11429-30; dated 22-09-2011: “10 applications have been received by various PIOs and all of them have been disposed off”.
This reporter contacted many senior bureaucrats to enquire about the implementation of Section 4(1) of RTI Act 2009.
When contacted, DDC Srinagar, Mehraj-ud-Din Kakroo, said, “It is in process of getting activated, but it has started.”
“We are preparing to put all the required information on our website. We are just fine tuning it and within a couple of days, you will see all the information on our website,” he said.
DDC Budgam, Mohammad Rafi, said that the instructions were already in place.
“We have issued a circular long back directing all the departments to voluntarily put on display the information of all the ongoing works,” he said.
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