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3 years of RTI in J&K-Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat

Today is 20th March and it was this day in 2009 when the new form of Right to Information Act (RTI Act) was enacted in J&K by Omar Abdullah led Government soon after coming to power. Prior to 2009 we had an RTI law passed by PDP Congress coalition Government headed by Mufti Mohammad Syeed in 2004 (J&K RTI Act 2004). The 2004 version of RTI Act was much weaker than the present one (J&K RTI Act 2009) but the Mufti led coalition Government had the distinction of passing RTI Act in J&K when no such law was enacted by the Central Government. It was more than a year later in October 2005 when the Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA 1) Government passed RTI Act at National level. Three years have passed since the new version of RTI Act got enacted in our state (J&K RTI Act 2009) and after analysing all the aspects of RTI regime in J&K we see people really getting empowered , corrupt being exposed and a great shift from era of secrecy to an era of transparency. 

As RTI activists we congratulate the Government and opposition for making RTI fully operational by constituting the State Information Commission (SIC) vis-à-vis appointing Chief Information Commissioner and two other Information Commissioners but at the same time there are some failures too on part of the Government for not creating awareness programmes for public and Government officials. There are lots of challenges ahead for the Government, State Information Commission (SIC) and civil society in ensuring setting up of a practical regime of transparency and accountability which is the essence of Right to Information Act .

ACHIEVEMENTS:

The Specific Instances of RTI success stories:
 
The training provided by J&K RTI Movement particularly emphasizes on awareness generation and building capacities of the local rural communities so as to access their entitlements and assert their rights under various schemes through the effective use of RTI Act. The people are trained to draft RTI applications by the activists associated with our group. The impact has been tremendous that can well be appreciated from the fact that today we can see a person belonging to BPL Category from a remote village filing applications under RTI Act and exposing some serious administrative irregularities. Just to make it more specific imagine a poor villager Bashir Ahmad Malik, BPL category, asking Chief Minister of J&K about his expenditure on his travel in the official State Helicopter. Another person Nazir Ahmad Deenda who belongs to Scheduled Tribe (ST) Gujjar Community sought details of Scholarships being provided to ST students of his village. The officials of Education Department used to swindle the money but after filing RTI application in Zonal Education Officer’s Office (ZEO) the scholarship was distributed amongst the rightful beneficiaries including daughter of Nazir in the remote village of Mujapathree in Budgam.
 
Similarly another man namely Ghulam Ahmad Lone who is a semi illiterate tailor from Branwar village in Budgam after being provided with the training identified a Govt. ISM Dispensary in his village where since last many years they haven’t seen a doctor. There was only a compounder (called Dawasaaz in ISM language) who managed the dispensary. He prescribed medicines to the poor and illiterate people in absence of the doctor. Having got empowered by knowledge that was provided to him by this organization he filed the RTI Application in District Medical Officer (ISM) office at Budgam. He sought details about the ISM doctor posted in Branwar village, his duty roster and details of medicines available at the dispensary. Within just couple of days that doctor started attending the patients whom people had never seen.

GENERAL CHANGE IN ENVIRONMENT:

The primary results of the intensive campaign started by J&K RTI Movement are as follows:
 
The more powerful RTI Act (i.e. RTI Act, 2009) was enacted by J&K Govt. due to the steadfast advocacy and campaign that J&KRTI Movement undertook.

State Information Commission got constituted.
 
Public Information Officers were appointed in various departments.

General public became aware about this law.
 
Departments started accepting RTI applications.
 
Administration became active after the knowledge of cases of corruption.

Files declared lost or in disuse became available and active.

FAILURES OF GOVERNMENT: 

Having enacted a strong RTI Act the J&K Government needs an applause but at the same time it has failed on many fronts:
 
Not creating awareness about RTI Act
 
Under section 23 of J&K RTI Act 2009 the Government is under legal obligation of creating awareness among masses for using Right to Information Act (RTI Act) but till date not a single such programme has been undertaken by the Government except holding few workshops for Government officials. How can people access information under RTI when they are not aware about this law? Instead of Government the state Information Commission (SIC) has held few such programmes and the Chief Information Commissioner Mr G R Sufi himself visited many far flung areas of J&K and urged the people to use RTI Act. It is pertinent to mention that SIC is not at all under legal obligation of holding such awareness programmes.

Government’s failure in making pro active disclosure under section 4 (1) (b) of J&K RTI Act 2009 :

Under Section 4 (1) (b) the public authorities are supposed to make proactive disclosures of various things which includes details about works undertaken, funds allocated, details of employees and many other things. This disclosure is to be made through notice boards, hoardings, websites etc. and the timeframe for this process under J&K RTI Act 2009 is 120 days. But till date not a single department in J&K has fully adhered to this guideline. We filed RTI in GAD last year to know the status of section 4(1) (b) implementation in various Govt departments and it was shocking to know that Public Information Officers (PIO’s ) and concerned HOD’s of various departments are not at all familiar with this important section of state RTI Act.

The state’s important departments Geology and Mining, Handloom, Horticulture, Transport, Tourism and Culture and Information Technology have written unsatisfactory replies to our RTI applications for pro-active disclosures. PIOs of these departments gave vague and irrelevant replies. One department was candid enough to admit that they don’t understand what proactive disclosure means.

The departments which completely failed to respond to pro-active disclosure related RTI application includes Home, Police, J&K Public Service Commission, JKPCC, JKPDC, J&K Board of School Education, SSRB, State Vigilance Organization, Crime Branch, Directorate of Health Services Kashmir /Jammu, Directorate of Rural Development Kashmir/Jammu, Directorate of CAPD Kashmir/Jammu, RTO Kashmir/Jammu and DG Accounts & Treasuries.

HIGH COURT’S INTERVENTION ON FEES:

We hail the J&K High Court’s recent decision for slashing the RTI fees. It is a great decision which is going to benefit the people of this state who had to pay Rs 50 until recently as application fee under State RTI Act 2009. Now the citizens of J&K will have to pay just Rs 10 as RTI application fee and for photocopying charges RTI applicant has to pay Rs 2 instead Rs 10. It would have been great if the J&K Government slashed down the fees earlier as RTI applicants in other states including some economically well off states like Punjab and Maharashtra are paying just Rs 10 as RTI application fees and Rs 2 as Xerox charge per copy. The J&K Government was charging five times more fee than what is being charges under central RTI Act.

The State Government needs to issue a circular to all the public authorities directing them to charge fee @ Rs 10 for application and Rs 2 for photocopying. Most of the Government offices are not at all aware about the High Court decision which has directed Government to slash RTI fees.

CHALLENGES AHEAD:

For Government the biggest challenge is creating awareness among masses and directing the Government departments to make pro active disclosures under section 4(1) (b) of J&K RTI Act 2009. Once the departments adhere to section 4(1) (b) there is no need to file applications under RTI Act as the same will be available on the websites, notice boards, hoardings, and through other mediums.

The Government must also provide full logistical support to State Information Commission which is the backbone of RTI Movement. It is so unfortunate that adequate funds are not provided for RTI awareness programmes.

The State Information Commission too has tough tasks like ensuring implementation of section 4(1) (b) and full compliance of its orders. There are few departments which have not abided by the judgments of SIC and if such things continue the credibility of SIC will be lost. Last but not least the RTI activists have to play their role in reaching out to people. It is not only the role of RTI activists but all the NGOs and Civil Society actors working in J&K have to understand the provisions of RTI Act and then create awareness about it.