Bivek Mathur
Jammu, Feb 19: At a time when Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tries to champion the cause of transparency and accountability in governance in the state, it is ironical that attempts are being made by his government to withhold vital information from trickling into public domain by not providing replies to uneasy questions of the opposition MLAs.
Reply to a question by CPI (M) MLA Mohd Yousuf Tarigami about the total number of works executed in different constituencies of the state without getting administrative approval, was not provided to the media and the government stated that a reply is being prepared which will be provided to the legislator separately. This is difficult to understand why government could not prepare the reply given the fact that the questions are submitted by the legislators over a month in advance.
Similarly, showing utter neglect to other issues of public interest, today in reply to a starred question of Peoples Democratic Party legislator Nizam-Ud-Din Bhat about the details of FIRs/Cases registered against youth and minors since 2010, the particulars of the persons arrested in such cases and of these, separately, the number of persons subsequently detained under PSA and exonerated till date and the present status of the cases in which no arrest has been made, the reply again was-'the information is being collected and will be submitted during the current session of the state legislature'.
To another question of another PDP legislator, Dr. Shafi Ahmed Wani related to crime and sexual harassment incidents having title -'the names and other particulars of persons booked under sexual harassment/gender discrimination/ rape and female feticide cases in the state during last two years the reply was similar.
To a similar question of PDP MLA Zulfiqar Ali, some days back, the government however replied that under General Amnesty policy of government, the particulars of the persons cannot be disclosed keeping in view the security reasons but today in reply to above mentioned questions, it has shown curiosity to reply to the members which has proved that it is contradicting over its own replies. |
