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| Suo-moto disclosure under RTI Act | | Govt Departments ignore legal requirement | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 17: Jammu & Kashmir State enacted the new version of Right to Information Act on March 20, 2009. However, more than four years have elapsed but the Government Departments and other Public Authorities have miserably failed to abide by the section 4 (1) (b) of J&J RTI Act 2009 wherein the Public Authorities (Govt Departments) have to make suo moto disclosure of various things so that such information is readily available to public through the official Government websites, notice boards, sign boards etc. As per J&K RTI Act 2009 the suo-moto disclosure was to be made within four months (120 days) from the day RTI Act was enacted in J&K state. As the RTI Act was enacted on March 20, 2009 the Government should have made the suo moto disclosures by the end of July 2009 but till date most of the departments haven't done so which is a clear violation of J&K RTI Act 2009.
The State Information Commission (SIC) which is an apex body to ensure implementation of Right to Information in the state had also failed to grill the Government earlier for this blatant violation of RTI law in state viz a viz implementation of section 4 (1) (b) suo moto disclosures , but from the last couple of months the SIC especially the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) G R Sufi issued some orders during the case hearing wherein the First Appellate Authorities (FAA's) and Public Information Officers (PIO's) where directed to upload all the information about their respective departments of their official websites. But the question arises that whether all the Govt departments have official websites or not and the answer is no. Even if the departments have their official websites but most of them are not being updated on regular basis and they contain all the useless and old information. Except few Public Authorities like SIC , Police , Vigilance , Health all other Departmental websites seem to be not being updated. Even the official website of J&K Government (jammukashmir.nic.in) is defunct from the last three and a half years and our tech savvy CM isn't bothered at all.
Suo Moto disclosure under Section 4 (1) (b) of JK RTI Act 2009:
The information that the "authorities" should disclose proactively (suo moto disclosure) under the J&K RTI Act 2009 section 4 (1) (b) are organisational structure, decision making process, official records and updated contact details of the designated officers. If the authorities frame any policy or takes any important decisions, it must publish all such policies and decisions along with reasons for support. The Act also states that all publications of authorities shall be available to the public at reasonable price and that the authorities shall publish and publicise matters of public interest through press notes or any other means. The reports that would be prepared by the public authorities shall be made available for free and its copies shall be stocked for sale at nominal price.
The Act further declares that information cannot be published or publicised if it is not stored or preserved properly and lays emphasis for preservation of information as well which ensures every authority to prepare, catalogue and index all the information.
"The State RTI Act underlines the fact that the information should be preserved in computer, websites that could be accessed by maximum number of people within a reasonable time limit and without filing RTI applications . Under the provisions of RTI Act a clear guideline on the timeline (120 days) is given within which the information needs to be published on websites, booklets, notice boards, hoardings etc but all this is just limited to the RTI booklet and on ground Government has miserably failed to implement these important provisions, "said Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat senior RTI activist and founder of J&K RTI Movement.
"On one hand National Conference leaders including Chief Minister keep beating the drum of enacting new version of RTI Act in state but on the ground neither there is awareness about the law nor are the provisions of this law implemented by the Government especially with regard to making suo moto disclosure under section 4 (1) (b) of J&K RTI Act 2009," said G Q Malik an RTI activist from Gandoh Bhalessa of Doda district. |
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