news details |
|
|
| Congress, BJP stay mum; SIC refers case to larger Bench | | Now RTI ghost haunts political parties in J&K | | JKNPP, NC
in SIC court for
misleading statement
Sumit Sharma
JAMMU, Dec 12: Notwithstanding number of reminders, two major National Political Parties namely Congress and BJP have denied information to the seeker under RTI Act, forcing him to file second appeal before State Information Commission for disposal of the same.
The RTI activist namely Deepak Sharma in his RTI, sought details of the working of the Congress and BJP which including details of persons who have donated amount more than Rs 20,000 and upto 1 Lakh to both the political parties from year 2009 to 2013, name of the contributors who have made single contribution of more than Rs 1 Lakh, copies of election manifestoes, land allotted to party by concerned ministry, details of allotment on rental basis and tax benefits enjoyed by both the political parties in the Jammu and Kashmir.
Failing to receive information, the RTI activist filed 2nd appeal, but SIC dispatched the case to the larger bench for disposal of the same. However, experts, are of the view that national or regional come under the ambit of RTI Act in Jammu and Kashmir and SIC had also made it clear that government departments whether State or Central should come under ambit of RTI Act 2009.
Except PDP, no political party is however, willing to divulge the information sought through RTI Act.
Earlier also, the complaints were lodged by two RTI activists namely Balwinder Singh and Deepak Sharma before SIC following which they received the reply from Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) stating that the political party did not come under RTI ambit. The reply came barely a couple of weeks ago when JKNPP supremo Professor Bhim Singh in his interview with national channel strongly advocated bringing political parties under RTI ambit for transparency. However, NC was mum over the reply of the query filed by the RTI activists, though the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah himself made it clear in a function organized by Central Information Commission that he wanted his party to come within RTI ambit but his party(NC) opposed his idea.
The RTI activists demanded to know details of persons who had donated more than Rs 20,000 and upto 1 Lakh to JKNPP from year 2008 to 2009, names of the donors who made single contribution of more than Rs 1 Lakh to JKNPP, copies of election manifesto by JKNPP for election held in the year in which NC formed coalition government under Chief Ministership of Omar Abdullah and land allotted to party and tax benefits enjoyed for the year 2008 to 2013.
The same questions were put to the National Conference except one namely " Were all the promises made in the said election manisfesto after NC formed the government in coalition with Congress under the Chief Ministership of Omar Abdullah delivered?"
However, in reply, JKNPP said that the party is not financed directly or indirectly by State Government and hence is not covered under 'Public Authority'. For further clarification, the RTI seeker should approach the Election Commission of India.
Meanwhile, when contacted, JKNPP supremo Prof Bhim Singh, admitted that the reply was filed by a clerk without his consent. Further advocating that political parties should be brought under RTI ambit, he said the party has yet to appoint PIO to reply the RTI queries.
However, NC became subject of accusation when Omar said, "as of now, my party is not on the list of parties that have to be part of the Right to Information and I don't know whether my party will agree with what I have to say. But if I they did ask me what I thought, I would believe it is justifiable for my party to come under the purview of the Right to Information Act," the NC leader said speaking at the eighth convention of the Central Information Commission (CIC).
Reacting over the statement People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday described Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's support for bringing political parties under the ambit of Right to Information Act (RTI) "as meaningless utterances unless people know the details of the wealth amassed by the top leadership of ruling National Conference".
"Nobody knows the factual position about the money being given to the NC top leadership in lieu of MLC seats and Haji Yousuf's death removed the lid from all such corrupt practices only partially," alleged PDP chief spokesman and MLC Naeem Akhtar. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
