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| Return RTI amendment Bill: CHRI to Governor | | | Early Times Reporter
Srinagar|Sept 12
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, an international NGO working to ensure the practical realization of human rights in the countries of the Commonwealth has urged the Jammu and Kashmir Governor Lt. Gen (Retd.) S K Sinha not to give assent to the state's RTI Amendment Bill as it is lacking in many respects.
The NGO has asked for further amendments in order to make it at par with the Central Government's Right to Information Act.
It may be mentioned here that Central Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah has also expressed reservations over the recent amendments in the RTI Bill and said that the bill is not fulfilling the aspirations of the people.
CHRI, in a statement, urged Governor to invoke powers under Section 78 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution, 1956 to (1) withhold assent to the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Amendment Bill, 2007.
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative has also called on the Governor to invoke his powers under the same section (2) to send the Jammu and Kashmir Right to Information Amendment Bill, 2007 back to the State Legislature for reconsideration.
An CHRI spokesman told said that the proposed amendments are a half-hearted measure and do not go the whole length of the way to bring the State RTI Act at par with the Central RTI Act. "There was no visible public consultation conducted by the State Government prior to the tabling of the Amendments. Several MLAs had strongly argued for referring the Amendment Bill to a joint select committee consisting of members of both Houses of the J&K Legislature for detailed consideration of the Act and the amendments as this is an important law giving effect to a fundamental right of citizens something that was ignored by the state legislature", the spokesman said.
The Amendments remain inadequate because they do not provide for the citizens, seeking information from public bodies in Jammu and Kashmir, the same guarantees and protections available to citizens in other parts of the country under the Central Right to Information Act, 2005.
CHRI believes that the amendments do not effectively secure the fundamental right to access information for citizens in Jammu and Kashmir . If the Amendment Bill becomes law, citizens will have inferior rights in matters relating to seeking and obtaining information from the Government as compared to that enjoyed by citizens in other parts of the country. Furthermore the amendments will create a weak enforcement mechanism for securing compliance of public bodies with the provisions of the J&K RTI Act. The Amendment Bill requires several changes if it is to bring the Jammu and Kashmir RTI Act at par with the Central RTI Act.
The spokesman told that soon the NGO would be launching a mass contact programme in the state of Jammu and Kashmir to make people aware about the lacunas in the Bill and pressurize the government to amend the Bill.
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