6 Years of RTI in J & K: A Lot has been Done, Yet More is Required !

6  Years of  J & K  RTI  Act

A Lot has been  Done, Yet  More is  Required!

RAMAN SHARMA

20^th March 2009 is an important date in the democratic history of Jammu and Kashmir State, on this auspicious day, the honourable governor Narinder Nath Vohra gave his assent to the bill passed by the state   legislature and the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Act 2009 came into operation on the same day at once. with  some provisions of the act, were suppose to be passed within 120 days of the enactment of the legislature.

In these last 6 years, a lot has been done by the state government, Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission, the General Administration Department, the Jammu and Kashmir Institute of Management and Public Administration and Rural Development (JKIMPA), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, (CHRI) the Jammu University, Indian Institute of Public Administration(JK Chapter) and of course by the print and electronic media. Without the support of these important institutions, the success of the RTI have remained merely a dream and we the citizens have not been able to see the significant changes.

The Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission in these last 4 years since appointment of its all the  members have given landmark judgements and brought a confidence amongst the citizens to use Right to Information Act to make the government and public authorities accountable. The commission head by Chief Information Commissioner along with two other commissioners till date have decided over 2500 cases including complaint and second appeals and directed the Public Information officers to provide information to the citizens. The commissioners in a  number of cases imposed penalties on the erring officers and in some other cases issued explanation notices against the responding officers. Though in the RTI Act there is also a provision of compensation to the information seeker but in this regard the record of the commission is very poor and only in just one case so far available on the commission’s website the compensation of rupees 2000 is awarded to a lady. The commission while deciding appeals and complaints also gave some controversial decisions which were also challenged by the information seekers and the officers and the Courts have stayed the operation of the commission’s order. But overall the Commission has been able to sustain its credibility at least with comparison to other watchdog commissions operating in the state.

The General Administration Department, GAD which is nodal department for ensuing training of Public Information officers, 1^st appellate authorities and even for citizens and other related issues connected with the RTI Act have also performed well in these last 6 years. Over thousands of Public Information Officers from different department on the behest and supervision of GAD undergone RTI training. Though lot more is expected from the GAD, almost negligible number of awareness programs being   carried by GAD for citizens. The department have also not taken seriously the genuine demand of the Public Information officers where they are asking for supportive staff and budgetary provision for providing information to the information seekers.

The Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development, JKIMPA in these last 6 years and especially after 2011 have conducted 100’s of training programs for all Public Information Officers, senior officers and even for the junior staffers in the institute campus both in Jammu and Srinagar. The faculty members of the JKIMPA in collaboration with the JKSIC also organized RTI training programs for all the district level PIO’s at their own district and covered almost all the 22 districts of the state.  Furthermore to strengthen the reach of the RTI act, the institute have now included the important provisions of the  RTI Act and rules as part of its regular curriculum for training to different level of officers including the trainee KAS officers. In these 6 years the IMPA have also conducted a very few programs for the general mass awareness.

In these six years or even perhaps more than that the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative(CHRI) an organization of International repute working for the promotion of RTI Act across the globe have contributed a lot for making this law more familiar amongst the citizens, through its local partners both from Kashmir and Jammu, the CHRI provided logistic and financial support for conducting training programs in School, Colleges, District offices and at Panchayat Levels for creating awareness about the law besides distributing pamphlets, other pictorial literature,  in year 2012 the organization even came with a User Guide carrying success stories, copy of the act, rules, important judgements of the Commission and other Court in a very simple and meaningful pattern. As compared to year 2010, 11 and 2012 this organization have also curtailed its programs in Jammu and Kashmir during the last 2 years.

Different departments of Jammu University have also conducted a number of seminars and debates on Right to information act with a participation of good number of students, unfortunately neither the Jammu or University of Kashmir took any initiative to include RTI Act as a part of syllabus. The Jammu and Kashmir Government in one of its reply in the state legislative assembly have assured to include the act as a part of syllabus even by the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education which also remained a mere promise.

The IIPA, the Indian Institute of Public Administration (J & K Chapter ) also conducted a number of seminars on this transparency law including the participation of Information Commissioners, Senior Officers and the people from the legal fraternity. The IIPA have also failed to ensure the participation of general masses, students which are the real stakeholder for promotion of this law. The IIPA confined its activities in its branch office and did not make any attempt to reach the rural population.

Without the whole heartedly support of media, this journey of RTI Act would not been have achieved anything and this law might have remained as merely boring and dull piece of legislation. The journalists associated with print and electronic media deserve many appreciations for their encouragement of Information Seekers where they have given ample space to the news stories related to the information gathered under Right to information Act. Even the present write up would not have come up, if the editors have not been supportive to the cause of Right to Information Act. But like other institutions, the media have done a  good service to this law but yet many editors are hesitant to give due credit to the information seekers and are reluctant to publish news stories coming through the revelation made under RTI replies, many a times, the name of the information seeker is deliberately erased, though it is discretionary right of the editor to decide what to carry or not in his newspaper but they must also recognise the fact that in this trouble hit state, even today getting information under this act is not so easy and it requires lot of guts, time and patience.   

Last but not the least, the citizens deserve all the credit for making this law so familiar amongst themselves, today the people are using this law for variety of different reasons, right from getting copy of mark sheet from university/Board to Certified copies of Fard Intikhaab documents from the revenue department. Today the residents of Jammu and Kashmir are resorting Right to Information applications to seek information from State Legislature to Panchayats, office of Block Development Officer to the office of Chief Secretary, undoubtedly there are resistance from some officers who see transparency as their foe but the movement of citizens have compelled these officers to respond. 

As a personal experience, I must also congratulate the State Police department for honouring the transparency law who have responded to almost all my RTI queries without any pressure or delay and in the RTI replies they honestly admitted the shortcomings in their department which is a separate issue. 

In short, in this small period of 6 years the citizens have now started believing in themselves, the power conferred to them by this act of State legislature, this is one of the finest law people ever got in the democratic history of the country. No attempt should be made to weaken it on the pretext of misusing and blackmailing, the only requirement is to make people aware about this law and to ensure proper training and infrastructure for the PIOs.