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| Resisting RTI would shake public trust in JKB | | | early times report
Jammu, Apr 29: Like all public utility services the Jammu and Kashmir Bank as all other such institutions exist and function in the public domain. The Right to Information (RTI) Act is one such right which gives access to information from Government offices, public utility services, recruitment agencies etc to the common man thereby empowering an average citizen in a manner that befits all democracies and democratically viable and functional institutions.
The extension of the RTI Act to the J&K Bank Ltd is just, legal and absolutely warranted in order to make the functioning of this premier financial institution in the state transparent and subject to public scrutiny.
It is highly intriguing that the management of the J&K Bank Ltd should obstruct the extension of the RTI Act to the bank. It is both surprising and alarming that the management of the bank should decide in the very first place that the institution should be kept beyond the reach of the Act.
Once enforced, the RTI Act would empower an ordinary citizen of the State including the bank's customers and shareholders to seek information about the financial handlings of the bank. The person seeking information under the Act can ask the management of the Bank to disclose and afford details about the loans granted to private and public enterprises. The information sought can also be on the lines regarding the prioritization of bank's financial objectives and aims.
An impression has been growing among the public that there has been an alarming flight of capital from the coffers of the bank to borrowers outside the State while the majority of the bank's financial resources are generated from within the state in the shape of deposits and shares.
The reluctance of the bank's management to submit itself to the RTI Act gives one to believe that there is something that the management intends to prevent from becoming public. It is not in the least interest of any financial institutions of the country much less the J&K Bank Ltd that the affairs of the financial institution be carried out in a shady manner. If the management of the Bank has nothing to hide then why the fear that once the RTI Act is extended to the bank there could be skeletons which would crawl out of the bank's cupboards? The least that can be done to set the disturbing debate at rest is to allow the extension of the RTI Act to the bank without any further wastage of time. Like all other financial institutions in the country, the J&K Bank Ltd exists and functions on the trust of its depositors and shareholders. Let not that trust be shaken by the resistance offered by the bank's management to extension of the RTI ACT.
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