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| TRANSPARENCY | | Long wait still for information seekers | |
Few deptts appoints PIOs; Information Commission still awaited
Early Times Special
JAMMU, August 23, 2009: Even though the government has made some forward movement on its much promised transparency by appointment of Public Information Officers in some departments, but there still seems to be a long wait for the information seekers to see a full fledged Information Commission under the RTI working in Jammu and Kashmir.
It may be mentioned here that Jammu and Kashmir is one among few states in country which are yet to fully implement RTI even as urge among masses to obtain information about functioning of departments and schemes is growing fast.
In the Legislative Assembly, the J&K National Panthers Party legislator, Mr Harsh Dev Singh, had caused acute embarrassment to the government some days ago by asking questions regarding the Prime Minister’s Reconstruction Plan (PMRP) funds.
The Finance Minister, Mr Abdul Rahim Rather, admitted it on the floor of the House that the government could avail only 20 per cent of the sanctioned amount. Of the approximately Rs 30,000 crores sanctioned under the PMRP, the J&K government had managed to utilize only Rs 6,000 crore.
The government’s admission of failure to utilize funds came during discussions on budget. It all started as ministers had cited lack of funds as the reason for failure to take up several development schemes. It was then that Mr Harsh Dev Singh pointed out the apparent duplicity in the government’s conduct.
On one side, its ministers were pleading that the state was facing a funds crunch and on the other, the funds allocated by the Central government had not been utilized, Mr Singh pointed out.
Such types of information, which exposes the government’s failure on different fronts, usually comes out into open during discussions in the legislature. In the days to come, ordinary citizens will be able to get such information through applications filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The government has taken some tentative steps towards a fuller implementation of the RTI though the Information Commission has not been constituted. However, the government has started appointing Public Information Officers (PIOs) and Assistant Public Information Officers (APIOs)
Incidentally, PIOs and APIOs are designated officials in various departments before whom the RTI applications are filed. They are the nodal officers who provide information to the public pertaining to their respective departments. As such, they are important clogs in the wheels of the RTI machinery.
A couple of days ago, the government has nominated some PIOs APIOs in some departments. The names of these officials have been given on the website of the general administration department (GAD) of J&K.
For the GAD, the PIO is Mr Yousuf Ahmed, special secretary in the GAD. Special secretary of civil aviation Zaffar Ahmed is the PIO for civil aviation department. Mr Shahid Anayat Ullah, Special Secretary, Planning & Development is the PIO for his department while Ms Daya Wanti, under secretary, Planning & Development, is the designated APIO for the department
For the office of the Registrar Cooperative Societies, Mr Aslam Ul Rashid, Special Secretary, is the designated PIO.
The government has also designated Mr Irshad Ahmed Mir, additional secretary, law department, as the PIO of the department. In addition, Ms Achal Sethi has been designated the APIO of the same department.
The PIOs and APIOs for other departments have apparently not been appointed so far as no names have been given on the website.
Interestingly, the office addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of the designated PIOs/APIOs have not been given on the website. At one level, this defeats the very purpose of designating these officials as PIOs/APIOs since the people still do not know how and where to contact them.
Some activists associated with the RTI movement said they will wait and watch for the government’s next moves. As of now, the infrastructure of making the RTI a powerful tool in the hands of the masses just doesn’t exist in J&K, they pointed out.
Sources in the GAD said in due course of time, the names of PIOs and APIOs of all the departments will be posted on the website for the convenience of the masses. The tendency among the officials is to stall free flow of information and implementation of the RTI will be a tough task, they admitted.
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