Govt dallying RTI implementation by Mushtaq Ahmad

Despite its introduction with much fanfare three years ago, Jammu and Kashmir government has abruptly slowed down on the implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was designed to bring transparency and accountability to public offices.

According to the Act enacted in March 2009, it is incumbent upon the state government to launch major awareness campaign for general public through various mediums of communication and languages, especially for disadvantaged communities within 18 months of the Act’s implementation.

Sources said the government is lax on the awareness front with training programs limited to Public Information Officers (PIO) only. The much needed measures like issuance of RTI-user guide or engaging disadvantaged communities are yet to takeoff which is affecting the efficacy of the Act. The literature and booklets for disadvantaged communities remains unpublished and undistributed.

Even the much-publicized sensitization of PIOs is showing poor results. A slew of RTI applications filed by JK RTI Movement head Muzaffar Bhat asking different departments if they have made proactive disclosure under Section 4(1) (b) of the J&K RTI Act 2009, have failed to elicit positive response. Under Section 4, the public authorities are supposed to make proactive disclosures about works and employees pertaining to a particular department.

 

The state’s top-notch departments like General Administration Department (GAD), Geology and Mining, Handloom, Horticulture, Transport, Tourism and Culture and Information Technology have written unsatisfactory replies to the RTI applications for pro-active disclosures. “PIOs of these departments gave vague and irrelevant replies. One department was candid enough to admit that they don’t understand what proactive disclosure means,” said Bhat.

He said applications were forwarded to around 20 departments but he failed to get the desired response. “These departments don’t know anything about pro-active disclosures. This is a very serious issue,” he said.

The proactive disclosure, according to the RTI Act, aims at reducing RTI application traffic to departments. “Once information is readily available under the proactive disclosure norm, very few RTI applications will be filed to extract basic information about public departments,” said Bhat.

The departments which completely failed to respond to pro-active disclosure includes Home, Police, J&K Public Service Commission, JKPCC, JKPDC, J&K Board of School Education, SSRB, State Vigilance Organization, Crime Branch, Directorate of Health Services Kashmir /Jammu, Directorate of Rural Development Kashmir/Jammu, Directorate of CAPD Kashmir/Jammu, RTO Kashmir/Jammu and DG Accounts & Treasuries.