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| Is J&K RTI Act 2009 not applicable in Pulwama? | | Official website has details of Central RTI law only | | Early Times Report
Pulwama, Apr 29: Though government spends huge funds on e-governance in J&K, the official apathy is quite visible as officials appointed to manage the official district websites are leaving no stone unturned to tarnish the image of the district where they are posted.
All the copy-pasted and misleading information continues to be the hallmark of many government websites especially the district websites.
Take a look at the official website of district Pulwama www.pulwama.gov.in. Instead of providing details about Jammu & Kashmir Right to Information Act 2009 (J&K RTI Act 2009) it carries a copy-pasted information of RTI Act of 2005 in its RTI section. It is worthwhile to mention that RTI Act 2005 is a central law which is not applicable in J&K state except for central government organisations.
The District Informatics Office which is responsible for updating the official district websites has been castigated several times for such mistakes, but it seems they are not ready to rectify the errors.
As reported by Early Times on April 16, the official website of district Bandipora had also committed similar mistake. They tried to rectify the same but could not do it correctly. The name of present DC has been put on the website by the officials of IT cell/District Informatics Office. But they have again made mistake by only removing RTI Act 2005 and inserted J&K RTI Act 2009. At the same time, officials have forgotten to mention that enactment of J&K RTI Act 2009 is an initiative of J&K Government and more specifically General Administration Department (GAD). Instead the copy-pasted words from some central RTI portal have been put into public domain which reads:
"It is an initiative taken by Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions to provide a RTI Portal Gateway to the citizens for quick search of information on the details of First Appellate Authorities, PIOs etc. amongst others, besides access to RTI related information / disclosures published on the web by various Public Authorities under the government of India as well as the State Governments."
The district website of Pulwama has also copy-pasted same lines on its RTI page which is available after one clicks MORE link available on right side of the website's main page:
"Department of Personnel and Trainings (DoPT) has no role vis a vis implementation of J&K RTI Act 2009. Our officers need to understand the difference between J&K RTI Act 2009 and Central RTI Act 2005. J&K RTI Act 2009 has been enacted more than 10 years back and if the IT officials in districts are still ignorant about this law they must be taken to task by Deputy Commissioners or their HODs. Such attitude is bringing disrepute to the upright Deputy Commissioners as well. It seems District Informatics Officers in districts don't have any accountability," said Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat, Chairman & Founder of J&K RTI Movement.
"I appeal DC Pulwama and other DCs to make their officials websites updated and grill the officials who are responsible for uploading copy-pasted and misleading information on their websites. It is duty of government to provide correct and updated information to people, but in case of J&K people are misinformed and mislead by many official websites."
Pertinently J&K RTI Act 2009 impresses upon all the public authorities to make voluntary disclosure of information under section 4 of this act. Not only is section 4 of J&K RTI ACT 209 violated but even the details of J&K RTI law are also not available on many official websites. State Information Commission needs to take serious note of these violations. |
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