Rajesh Tandon
Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 5: Even as the new Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019 has been implemented in new Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the Right to Information Act is likely to be strengthened in the State which was taken for granted by the most of the government departments to hide their misdeeds in previous governments.
Sources told Early Times that prior to transition of Jammu and Kashmir State into Union Territory, the RTI Act was never taken serious by the departments and the information seekers were harassed, shunted by the concerned officers. Applicants had to wait for months to get reply of their RTIs. The deliberate delay in furnishing reply on behalf of the departments was an attempt to discourage the information seekers.
“A large number of RTIs are laying in the various offices including PWD (R&B), RDD, PHE, PDD, Revenue Department etc. which have not been answered till date in order to hide their scams so that they may not come out in public,” said Amit Gupta from district Poonch.
The Public Information officers (PIOs) are main culprits, who never send reply, which have potential to cause damage to the departments. In previous governments, the RTI Act was never given importance by the department and was held hostage to the bureaucrats, said Sunil Sharma from Jammu and Sunil Sawhney form Rajouri.
They alleged that the general modus operandi of PIOs to discourage RTI seekers was to send him/her letter demanding unjustified huge amount as printing charges putting the applicants in distress. “Poor are main sufferer who can’t afford huge amount as printing charges and had to leave the idea to the get reply from RTI. Not only the general public, even the media persons have to the work hard and had to face difficulties to get reply. |
