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| Do security related matters come under RTI Act? | | | G.R.Sofi.who took over as Chief Information Commissioner on January 28 has lost no time in asserting his authority when he cautioned bureaucrats against no implementation of Right To Information (RIT)Act that has been passed by the state legislature. What has been the reason that has motivated Sofi to act fast? He himself has answered this question when the other day he said that a large number of people have been calling on him with complaints that their applications seeking some information about one thing or the other had not been honoured or had received no response from the concerned bureaucrats. And rightly Sofi has asked the bureaucrats to keep abreast with the applications filed under the RTI Act so that action was taken on each application in letter and spirit of the Act. He seems to be su much peeved over the apathy of the bureaucracy that he has reminded the officers that the RTI Act adopted by the state legislature was not an piece of ornament that had to be kept as a piece of decoration. If the officers treat the Act as mere ornament for decoration it would defeat the very purpose of the Act.
In fact in comparison with other states in India Jammu and Kashmir requires to ensure implementation of the RTI Act in letter and spirit because of the level of corruption and corrupt practices in this troubled state having touched a new high. As such people need to know what happened to this or that case.The state Government is supposed to make it clear whether the human rights violations and implementation of the AFSPA would fall under the RTI Act.In the recent past police authorities refused to provide information to a person or persons who had filed applications under RTI Act on the plea that dishing out information could affect the security system and make the security grid vulnerable to attack by the militants. Hence before Sofi's instructions were headed by the bureaucrats the Government in general and Sofi in particular are supposed to clear some doubts on whether the RTI Act is applicable to security related issues or not. It is more needed in Jammu and Kashmir than in any other Indian state because usually and invariably the state remains plagued by roars and complaints against human rights violations.
Another suggestion given by Sofi to the Government is that each department and public sector undertakings appoint Principal Information Officers so that every application filed under RTI Act was processed by him and after seeking information provide the same to the applicant. This suggestion deserves top most attention by the Government because you cannot expect senior Government functionaries, including those holding the ranks of secretaries, commissioners,ADGs and IGs in police in the state services and MDs in public sector corporations, to remain engaged all the time with the compiling of the information for applicants under the RTI Act. Another lacuna in the Act is that a complainant has to pay a fee of Rs.50 per application and Rs.10 per page of information. This way if the information that a Government department has to provide to an applicant is very long the applicant may have to pay over Rs.300 to Rs.500.Those who invoke the RTI Act usually belong to the middle class families and spending Rs.300 to Rs.500 may prove a dampner in his interest in securing information that could be beneficial for the people. Here the state Government seems to have tried to kill two birds with one stone. On one hand it has demonstrated its special identity and constitutional status which has not made it mandatory for it to extend the central RTI Act to the state. On other by charging heavy fee the Government plans to discourage the RTI activists. Hence the Act needs to be reviewed so that the applicants are to pay Rs.10 as fee for per application and Rs.2 for per page information as is the practice in the rest of the country. Besides this Sofi in particular and the state Government in general have to ensure that the RTI activist were not attacked by the vested interests.(eom)
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