5 years of RTI in J&K: An Introspection by Deepak Sharma

Deepak Sharma

The Right to Information Act since its inception in 2005 in Center and 2009 in Jammu & Kashmir has begun an era of transparency and accountability in Governance and functioning of public authorities.

The Right to Information is given the status of the fundamental right under article 19(1) of the constitution of India. In 1976, the Supreme Court of India in the case of Raj Narain vs State of UP, said that it is not possible for the people to speak or express themselves unless they are informed and further observed that since India is a democracy people are the masters. Therefore, the masters have a right to know how the governments, meant to serve them, are functioning. Moreover every citizen pays taxes. Even a beggar pays tax (in the form of sales tax, excise duty etc) whenever he buys any thing from the market. The citizens therefore, have a right to know how their money is being spent by the government.  

These three principles were laid down by the Supreme Court while saying that Right to Information (know) is a part of our fundamental rights. 

Ironically no significant attempt was made either by the Central or State Government to implement the observations made by the apex court in regard to Right to Information. The current of demand for right to information for was first felt in Rajasthan and subsequently it swelled throughout India. 

The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) started the Right to Information movement in Rajasthan and later it spreaded all over India .

Though in 2002, the then NDA led government enacted a law known as Freedom of information Act 2002 but due to less media propagation, bureaucratic apathy  and unawareness of the citizens this act could not become familiar amongst the masses and slowly became redundant .

 Finally, In May 2005, the central legislation i.e.  Right to Information Act 2005 was passed by Parliament. The RTI Act 2005 received Presidential assent on 15 June and came fully into force on 12 October 2005.

The journey of RTI act has not been that easy either in center or in the state of Jammu & Kashmir , which has its own RTI Act 2009, as it faced sturdy resistance from the corrupt and the anti transparency faction of the society. 

The present form of state act i.e. Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act, 2009 came into force on 20 March 2009. Ever since its enactment it has tasted both the appreciation and apathy from the Government. Though the state RTI Act was first said to be more powerful than central RTI act, by the state Government but the same Government later weakened it by bringing amendment in the rules of the act. Which made it almost powerless as compared to earlier rules as these rules have  curtailed most of the powers of the State Information Commission, the apex RTI body act in the state.  

The mysterious silence of the State Information Commission at the times when the old rules were repealed by the Government raised many eyebrows and condemnation from the civil society and RTI activists. Moreover the reluctance  shown by the State Information Commission in conducting awareness programs among masses regarding the implementation of RTI act in the state further distanced the commission from those activists/stakeholders who are acting to safeguard the epitome of transparency in the state.  

The apathy and outlook of the State Information Commission towards RTI activist and other advocates of transparency in the state can be well gauged from the fact that seldom the State Information Commissioners had held any meetings with the RTI activists and other stake holders to know and discuss the issues experienced by them for the better implementation of state RTI act. Rather than appreciating the role of RTI activists in  exposing the corrupt practice prevalent in the public authorities, the State Chief Information Commissioner, on the contrary on several occasions  have even denied to recognize those who are exposing the corrupt practices at the cost of their lives, as activists and had publicly stated and restated that the commission do not recognize anybody as activist , which has utterly shattered the self respect of many activists as what they can expect from others, when the commission itself questions their identity . 

Justifying its stand the learned commissioner states that in the RTI act there is no mention of the word ’activist’, but it fails to understand that as per RTI act there is also no mention of any obligation on anybody to put one’s life on threat to expose the corrupt practices prevailed in the society. But still there are altruistic people who with missionary zeal to save the nation from the monster of corruption, showing utmost courage, files RTI and fights against the set system of sleaze to expose the corrupts and misdeeds in the Governance and public sectors.

The Hon’ble State Chief Information Commissioner need to understand that an applicant is one who files an RTI for its own purpose and cause whereas an activist is the one who feeling his/her moral responsibility towards society uses the act and files RTI in the larger public interest and these people well deserves to be recognized as activists by the commission, feeling its own moral responsibility. 

The commission and activist are the soul and heart of the transparency act as one can not function properly without the other. The nation in general and the state in particular has seen the fate of all those acts in which there was no significant role of activists , they all either met their silent death before bringing any change in the society or became weak and redundant . 

The incidents of allegations by some activists, of favoritism and sleekness shown by the State Information Commission towards some public authorities and  being selective while imposing penalties to the  erring Public Information Officers depicts the resentment of many towards the functioning of the commission and the distance between the activist/applicants vis-à-vis commission further increases which is a matter of serious concern, not healthy for transparency regime and need to be addressed as early as possible.

From the other end, the poor implementation of section 4(1)(b) of the RTI act which obligates the public authorities to pro actively disclose information regarding its functioning , pathetic record management and lack of digitization of records in public authorities are the major roadblock to the effective realization of the RTI act in the state. 

 The Public Information Officers (PIO) who are designated under the RTI act to provide information to the applicant , in most of the cases are overburdened as apart from discharging duties as PIO , they are also designated to perform other functions of the public authority .  

Since RTI is a time bound matter and in the absence of timely delivery of information, the PIO could be penalized, the PIO gives preference to the timely disposal of RTI applications and hence the other function of the public authority performed by the same PIO is sidelined and delayed, which again ultimately adds to the suffering of the citizens. The act which is made to bring transparency becomes the biggest blockade for getting their work done for citizens in such circumstances. 

 To overcome such situations apart from proper digitization of the record , deliberations be made by the competent authorities to designate PIO exclusively  for the timely disposal of the RTI requests and they should not be delegate any other function, so that  other work of public importance do not get suffer.   

Inspite of all, in a short period of 5 years since its enactment, the RTI act has been successfully used by many RTI activists in the state to uncover many scams and transgression in the governance from sales tax scam to defunt lying ventilators and wastage of precious blood in the Government Hospitals of the state,  Snail pace of work at Mubarak Mandi Complex or fake gold offering and many new incidents of scams exposed through the RTI are being reported almost daily.  

The sunshine law can attain its true spirit only when everyone in the civil society attain the spirit of activism and use the RTI act  to establish an   accountable, public welfare friendly ,corruption free and transparent governance.  About Author: Deepak Sharma is a RTI Activist and can be reached at rtiactjk@gmail.com

http://epaper.earlytimes.in/archive.aspx?page=6&date1=03/20/2014