news details |
|
|
| RTI a failure for Kargil residents | | |
Early Times Special
Jammu, January 5, 2010:
A section of residents of Kargil district have tried their best to make use of the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2009 to get information but the officials have refused to help them.
Chairman of the Citizens Council of Kargil Haji Ahsan Ali Gonkhapa has now sent an open letter to commissioner secretary Basharat Dhar of the General Administration Department (GAD). In the letter, the residents have informed Mr Dhar that their best efforts to seek information under the RTI Act from various government departments in Kargil have proved to be utter failures.
During the last several months, the residents filed RTI applications with various government departments but ``the officials are not cooperating with the applicants’’.
The Kargil residents have expressed surprise that many officials themselves were not aware about the RTI Act.
``As Chief Minister is completing his one year term in office, I want o remind you of this fact that nothing is changing at the grassroots level as the government officials continue to be involved in all sorts of illegal practices. There is no respite to the poor people at the grassroots level even after enactment of a progressive RTI Act in the state. The government claims to have enforced a strong RTI law in the state but when we want to seek information under this law the government officials continue to harass us,’’ the letter says.
``Our group filed an RTI application in state Health & Medical Education department while the durbar was in Srinagar (in October 2009). But even after a lapse of three months, the information is still awaited. When we tried to meet the Public Information Officer (PIO) of Health & Medical Education department at Civil Secretariat few days back, he openly refused to provide the requisite information,’’ it adds.
The behaviour of the PIO was really ``very much autocratic’’ and he did not act like a public servant getting his salary out of public money, the residents allege. The official should have provided information within 30 days as per J&K RTI Act 2009. However, over three months later, the information has not been provided to the applicants, Mr Dhar has been informed.
The residents have pointed it out to Mr Dhar that they were not in a position to file an appeal because the State Information Commission (SIC) was headless. They have sought the top GAD official’s intervention to correct the anomalies prevailing in various departments.
They have requested Mr Dhar to ensure that RTI is implemented and urged him to conduct RTI awareness programmes at the grassroots level via print and electronic media.
Copies of the letter have also been sent to the chief minister, Mr Omar Abdullah, and the Chief Information Commissioner of India, Mr Wajahat Habibullah, who is scheduled to take charge as the CIC in J&K.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
