No rules for meeting Governor: J&K Raj Bhavan reply to RTI plea after 5 Months

RTI Plea Seeking Procedure For appointment with Governor

   

JAMMU, 11/JULY/2013: Very Simple Information (under RTI) which could have been easily supplied within hours or at least within specified period of 30 days is being provided to an information seeker after a  delay of more than 150 days by none other than the Public Information Officer of the Jammu and Kashmir Raj Bhavan. In a case, RTI Activist, Raman Sharma vide his Right to Information  application dated 06/02/2013 has sought  detail from the Raj Bhavan about the procedure to seek appointment of meeting with the Honourable Governor,   procedure adopted by the Rajbhavan in allowing or rejecting appointment to the Individual/delegations, details of total number of Individual/delegations who visited and met Honourable Governor during the period 01/Jan/2010 to till date, the applicant has also wanted to know some other simple queries like, the total number of memorandum and representations revived by the Raj Bhavan during the same  period but instead of providing this information to the applicant, earlier the PIO vide his office letter dated 12/03/2013 had preferred  to reject the plea stating that office of the governor is ‘privileged one’ hence the sought information cannot be shared.

But after the strong written protest and argument by the information seeker before the 1^st appellate authority of the governor’s secretariat, the PIO on 13/06/2013 was directed to give proper reply to the applicant as per the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act 2009.  

Now, finally after strong rap by the higher authorities,   PIO of the Raj  Bhavan vide his office letter dated 10/July/2013 has furnished reply to the applicant which states that there are no rules and regulations exists regarding the governor’s meeting with the people .

 The reply also states that the individuals and delegations seeking to meet the governor ask for appointment on telephone,  e.mails or letters and all such requests are reviewed by the governor who decides how does his appointments would be spread over the week/month. It has also been intimated in the reply that governor normally meets all the people  unless he has met or heard them earlier. The reply also reveals  that during the period 01/01/2010 to 30/05/2013, a total of 1705 individuals and 241 delegations which comprises 2215 persons met the governor and Governor’s Secretariat received 2194 memorandum. Commenting on the unnecessarily delay caused by the PIO in furnishing reply, activist  Raman Sharma said the information which is now being served after the intervention of the senior officer of the Raj Bhavan should have been provided by the PIO  at the 1^st instance without wasting the time of the applicant and the senior officers, he also said this shows that some bureaucrats are yet not willing to share information with the citizens which is absolutely a violation of the fundamental right. i.e right to information.

published in PTI, Zee News, Business Standard, Rising Kashmir, Earlytimes Plus, The Northlines, JK Newspoint, Kashmir Times and many other News Papers.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/no-rules-for-meeting-guv-j-k-raj-bhavan-reply-to-rti-plea-113071100861_1.html

http://zeenews.india.com/news/jammu-and-kashmir/no-rules-for-meeting-governor-jandk-raj-bhavan-reply-to-rti-plea_861641.html