JK RTI: No more information from CID

The Northlies , 17-March-2012,

NL Correspondent Jammu, Mar. 16: After making tall claims of brining transparency and accountability in the administration the Jammu and Kashmir government is now all set to trim the Right to Information Act in the state, which somehow have helped the people to get justice in a dignified manner. Jammu and Kashmir Government have exempted State's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from the purview of Right to Information Act 2009. Vide SRO 26 and GAD order No. GAD(Adm.)110/2009-V dated 12-March-2012, the state government in exercise of the powers conferred by section 21 of the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009, the Government specified the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) as an organization of the State which is now not liable to provide information to the citizens. Section 21 (1) of the J & K RTI Act 2009 allows the state government to put intelligence and security organizations out of the purview of the act by virtue of a gazette notification for the purpose but in cases of corruption and Human Rights Violation, the organization is still liable to provide information after the approval of the state information commission. However as per Section 21 (2) of the J & K RTI Act 2009, every notification for exemption for any organization is to be tabled before each house of the state legislature. This move of the state government will deprive the citizens to seek status of their passport applications pending with the CID for verification. It is pertinent to mention here that in Jammu and Kashmir in view of the so called militancy situation, Passports under Normal and Tatkal Categories are granted only after receipt of the Clear Final Police Verification Report, verifying & authenticating the antecedents as well as photograph of the applicants by the CID Headquarter . As of now the passport applicants were successfully using RTI applications to get timely verification of their passport verification which otherwise remain pending with the department for quite a long time.  http://www.thenorthlines.com/newsdet.aspx?q=50603 Independent MLA marshalled out from JK Assembly over CID issue PTI | Mar-19-2012 Jammu, Mar 19 (PTI) Independent MLA Engineer Rashid was marshalled out from the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly today after he resorted to protests over the de-linking the CID of Jammu and Kashmir Police from the purview of RTI. Raising and protesting over the issue, Rashid rushed into the Well of the House and resorted to noisy scenes amidst seeking of reply from the government on it. Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar said Rashid had a habit of creating noisy scenes and disrupting the House repeatedly. This angered the MLA, who entered into verbal duals with the Minister. As the Chair's repeated directions that Rashid should go to his bench failed, Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone directed marshals to take him out and the MLA was marshalled out of the House. "My voice is being muzzled. I am raising the public issue which is most important for the people, particularly those who wanted to go on Hajj", Engineer Rashid told reporters outside the Assembly. As per reply of the RTI, there are 60,000 passports of various families pending for clearance with the government and they are not been granted passports to go on Hajj, he said. Rashid alleged that those whom the government called separatists were enjoying the facilities with grant of passports and visiting other countries, but the common people were suffering for want of passports to go on Hajj. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is on record on the floor of the House that nobody can be denied passport on the ground that he is the relative of people involved in militancy related cases, added.