Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
The existing Right to Information law ie Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act 2009 completed 10 years of its enactment recently. If we include RTI Act enacted in year 2004 (J&K RTI Act 2004) then it is almost 15 years we have this law operational in our state. After more than a decade we still have a weak RTI regime and the main reason is lack of awareness and implementation. Being a campaigner of RTI law in J&K, I have written a lot on this Act from last 12 years. After keenly observing the developments around RTI regime in J&K, I have come to this conclusion that Government officials do not want this law to flourish and that is reason from last 5 to 6 years , its implementation and awareness is dismal and disturbing.
Legal obligation on Government
Under section 23 of J&K RTI Act 2009 ,Government is under legal obligation to undertake information , education and communication (IEC) campaign on RTI law. This awareness and IEC campaign has specially to be undertaken among disadvantaged communities living in far flung areas of state. In addition to it Government has to train its officials especially the First Appellate Authorities (FAAs) and Public Information Officers (PIOs). These designated officers have to be sensitized about the provisions of the law. As Government failed to do so, our organization (JK RTI Movement) came forward and filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before J&K High Court. The Court disposed off this PIL within a few months directing Government to create awareness and to make voluntary disclosure of information under sections 23 and 4 of JK RTI Act 2009. This was infact our prayer before the High Court. In-spite of High Court directions the Government continues to violate this law. We are now mulling for a contempt petition. Before we moved to High Court with a PIL , J&K State Information Commission (SIC) also issued several circulars and notices to Government to adhere to the provisions of section 4 and 23 of J&K RTI Act 2009. Former State Chief Information Commissioners (CICs) G R Sufi and Khurshid Ahmad Ganai issued several circulars reminding the Government to make voluntary disclosure of information on official websites under section 4 and undertaking of RTI awareness programmes under section 23 of J&K RTI Act 2009. Government hardly bothered to adhere to the circulars and notices.
Disregarding High Court order
More than 2 months have passed since the PIL on RTI implementation has been disposed off by Hon’ble High Court of J&K , but the awareness camps or pro active disclosure of information under section 4 of State RTI law is yet to be initiated. To implement the said High Court direction, Government has not even issued a formal order or circular till date. I am dismayed and distressed by the Governor administration as well which has not taken any concrete steps to implement the provisions of J&K RTI Law. In-fact the decisions State Administrative Council (SAC) took last year vis a vis declaring some organizations as Public Authorities have also not been implemented till date. When the PIL on RTI implementation was filed , Government got exposed vis a vis conducting training RTI workshops for its citizens and designated officers (PIOs and FAAs) . When details of awareness camps and workshops were submitted before the Hon’ble High Court by Government through General Administration Department (GAD) , it was shocking to know that mere two RTI workshops had been conducted in last 3 years (until Oct 2018) by the Government through Institute of Management Public Administration & Rural Development (IMPARD) . During these two workshops only 42 officers have been trained. Pertinently from year 2011 to 2013 more than 75 RTIworkshops were conducted by IMPARD wherein more than 2500 officers were trained.This indicates that Government has failed even to create awareness for its own officers and creating awareness among citizens and disadvantaged communities seems to be a distant dream. Ironically a false information was submitted by an Additional Deputy Commissioner to General Administration Department (GAD) wherein the officer claimed that 617 RTI workshops were conducted in Rajouridistrict for citizens during last several years. GAD submitted the same details along with an affidavit before Hon’bleHigh Court last year. When I sought the participants list , photos , press releases, videos , date and other details of these so called 617 RTI workshops through an RTI, the PIO in DC office Rajouri failed to divulge these details. It is clear enough that all the information submitted before Hon’ble High Court is misleading and concocted. The RTI reply said that no videos and photos of these awareness camps were available. How is this possible ? Even for small Government functions and workshops videos and photos are taken , and for 600 plus awareness camps there is not even a single photo or video available ? This is a matter of grave concern that Government officials are now lying even before Judiciary and that too when the officers are under an oath !
Conclusion
Governor Satya pal Malik has himself been saying that corruption is a serious problem in J&K and needs to be dealt with iron fist. Everybody knows that Right to Information (RTI) helps to make Government accountable before citizens. Information which can’t be denied to a member of state legislature or Parliament can’t be denied to a citizen as well and this is very much well explained in State and Central RTI laws. It is also a fact that RTI checks corruption and makes people empowered. If Government is serious about eradicating corruption, then the institutions that help to reduce corruption need to be strengthened. RTI thus needs not only to be strengthened but this law should be institutionalized as well. If people don’t know how to file an RT application or how to pay RTI application fees even after 10 years of enactment of this law in Jammu and Kashmir, I believe this is utter failure of Government. If Government is not able to create awareness about this law or lacks manpower to train PIOs and designated officers, why can’t this job be outsourced to Non Government Organizations (NGOs) or other private institutions who undertake capacity building programmes and workshops. If NGOs can be asked to assist Government in creating awareness on Beti Padaao Beti Bachaaw, Consumer Rights , AIDS , Environmental issues etc why can’t they be asked to undertake RTI awareness / training as well ?
(The author is Chairman of Jammu & Kashmir RTI Movement)
Feedback: bhatrajamuzaffar@gmail.com
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