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| Govt.offices acccused of violating RTI Act | | | THE rate of violation of the various provisions of the Right to Information(RTI) Act by various Government departments in Jammu and Kashmir has been on the increase.This seems to have been the main reason for the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC),G.R.Sofi, to shot off a missive to Chief Secretary,Madhav Lal,urging him to initiate measures which would not allow Departmental heads and the Public Inormation Officers to violate various provisions of the RTI Act .Sofi has suggested to the Chief secretary to direct the Depart mental heads and the Public Information officers to study again the section 4 of the RTI Act which makes it mandatory for the officers to furnish information sought by the applicants under the RTI Act .It has come to the notice of the CIC that various Government offices have either ignored the applicants' request for information on particular case or development or have refused to provide the required information under the RTI Act which came into force in Jammu and kashmir from March 20,2009.Since then there have been various cases of violations of the main provisions of the Act and the CIC remained flooded with complaints regarding failure of public authorities in fulfilling this statutory obligation to maintain their records catalogued and indexed in a manner and form which can facilitate people to exercise their right to information under the Act.It is in the context of rising number of complaints that the CIC has rued saying that it was a sad commentary with this piece of legislation which the legislature of the state had rightly described as progressive and people friendly.And to ensure implementation of various provisions of the RTI Act series of circulars have been sent to all Government departments urging them to implement various provisions of the ACT.The CIC has come to the conclusion that in case the cases of non-implementation of the RTI Act continued to pile public authorities will be held responsible for failing in their duty.One is sceptical about the impact of the missive from the CIC to the Chief Secretary because senior Government functionaries believe that in case they fully implemented various provisions of the RTI Act various skeletons in the cupboards of the departments may get exposed. It is a national phenomenon and that is the reason that number of whistleblowers,especially those who keep on securing information about the Departmentals' functioning and about various cases in different offices.have been harrassed and some of them lost their lives when they were attacked by those whose nefarious designs could be exposed through the implmentation of the RTI Act. Luckily there has been no such incident in Jammu and Kashmir even while the state is at number two place among the worst corrupt states in India and where politics is as filthy as the Dal Lake.There can be only one reason behind it.Since the Public Information Officers and the Departmental heads sleep over the applications seeking information under the RTI Act there is no need for the corrupt or the indisciplined officers to feel unnerved.But if the scene continues the CIC may be forced to crack a whip under the powers vested in him under the RTI Act against PIO and other Departmental heads.If it happens it will lead to administrative crisis.And the Chief Secretary alone can reverse the trend of nonimplementing the RTI Act.
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