No improvement in situation even after GAD’s intervention
They don’t respond to our repeated communiques: IC
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 9: 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.
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.
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