J&K RTI Act and problems

Er Irfan A Banka
Objectives of J&K RTI Act 2009:
The basic objective of the J&K Right to Information Act 2009 is to empower the citizens, promote transparency and accountability in the working of the Government, contain corruption, and make democracy work for the people in real sense. It goes without saying that an informed citizen is better equipped to keep necessary vigil on the instruments of governance and make the government more accountable to the governed. The Act is a big step towards making the citizens informed about the activities of the Government. The Act empowers J&K Citizens to seek information from a Public Authority, thus making the Government and its functionaries more accountable and responsible. The Act has benefited many, including the poor and the underprivileged.
Issues and Constraints:
The Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act (RTI) is going to complete its six years of its enactment on March 20th, 2015; but even then till now there are a lot of issues and constraints being faced some of which are discussed below:
* Low Public Awareness Level:
Section 23 of the Act states that the Government may develop and organize educational programmes to advance the understanding, of the public, in particular of disadvantaged communities as to how to exercise the rights contemplated under the Act. However, as per my survey only 18% of the respondents were aware of the J&K RTI Act. Regarding the awareness, I observed that the major sources of this awareness were J&K RTI Movement, Radio and edit pages of Newspapers, Internet and Word of mouth.
While the Act has been clear in defining the responsibility of the Government, with respect to creating awareness of the Act, there have been lack of initiative from the Government’s side. The efforts made by Government and the Public Authorities have been restricted to publishing of rules and forms on websites. These efforts have not been helpful in generating mass awareness of the RTI Act. As compared to RTI Act the common citizens (and disadvantaged communities) are significantly more aware of other Government schemes focussed on socio-economic development.
*Constraints faced in filing applications:
The J&K RTI Act 2009 specifies to the Government and the competent authority to make rules pertaining to implementation of the act. Under section 6 of the RTI Act, the PIOs are required to render all reasonable assistance to the applicant in drafting and submission of the application. However, from analysis in the practical field, it is clear that the Government and the Public Authorities have taken inadequate steps to make the RTI process citizen-fiendly. The process of RTI application submission has not been designed keeping in view the needs and convenience of the citizens. Public Authority, SIC and the weak role played by Nodal Department is responsible for this failure because frequent review of RTI implementation is not done.
* Poor quality of information provided:
Many times when I filed RTI against any department, I observed that there is 75% dissatisfaction with the quality of information being provided. It is observed that incomplete and inaccurate information is provided by the PIOs and this becomes the common reason for the first appeal. As per my analysis, the reason for incomplete and inaccurate information is the failure of the Public Authority in the record management and the transparency in the process or the improper trainings provided to the concerned PIO.
Constraints faced in inspection of records:
Sometimes applicant asks for information of many years from departments or the inspection of records. It is clear that the Public Authority will face difficulty in sorting out the required date and provide me the information within the stipulated time. However they can let the applicant to inspect the documents which they fail at most of the times. This is because of the unawareness of such provision of inspection in the Act. Awareness should be made to utilize this provision effectively.
Failure to provide information within 30 days:
As per the Act, the information has to be provided within the stipulated time. However, PIOs are challenged to provide the information within the stipulated time due to inadequate record management procedures with the Public Authorities. It is known fact that the record keeping process within the Government is a big challenge. This situation is further aggravated due to non-availability of trained PIOs and the enabling infrastructure (computers, scanners, internet connectivity, photocopiers etc). Public Authorities need to meet the requirements of the RTI Act to review their current record keeping procedures and constraints and plan out the resources.
On 21-10-2014 Government of India, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Personnel & Training, Director(IR), vide his Office Memorandum No 1/1/2013-IR, has directed all Ministries/Departments of Government of India to upload the reply to RTI applications and first appeals respectively on the websites of the respective Ministry/Department. This was a good initiative of the Government but it seems that until and unless the RTI Activists will not interfere and agitate, such orders will not be implemented by the government as has been proved in many cases likewise.
Inadequate trained PIOs and FAAs: The training of PIOs is a big challenge primarily due to huge number of PIOs to be trained and frequent transfers of PIOs to other posts. There is only one training institute in Kashmir i.e. IMPA, Srinagar. It possess a huge constraint with respect to the availability of training resources and there is a significant dependence of the IMPA for training of the PIOs. Nobody can ignore the JKRTI Movement which is carrying out the trainings and workshops in official/unofficial capacities alone or in collaboration with other NGOs. This organisation is conducting workshops at District, Tehsil and Block levels thereby reaching every corner of the society. This is an untapped resource which could be utilised by the PA, Government and the Training Institute.
Lack of monitoring and review:
One of the most important roles of the State Information Commission is to monitor and review the Public Authority and initiate actions to make them comply with the spirit of the Act. However this has been one of the weakest links in the implementation of the Act. It is acknowledged and appreciated that the information commission has been primarily spending most of its time in “hearings” and disposing off appeals. However monitoring the Public Authority for compliance of the Act is also an important aspect of the role of the Information Commission, which could result in reducing the number of appeals.

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