Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
Governor NN Vohra while speaking at Regional Conference on Right to Information Act (RTI) last week in Jammu , stressed upon replacing the culture of secrecy with openness, transparency and through peoples participation. He accepted the fact that lot of work was still required to be done in order to ensure the meaningful use of RTI for promoting transparency , accountability and good governance. It is a fact that Governor Vohra has been closely observing the evolution and implementation of J&K RTI Act 2009. We have met Governor several times during last several years in connection with implementation of RTI Act in state. Vohra sahib has always been a great supporter of Right to Information Movement in J&K. It was due to his efforts early last year (during Governors rule) that several public authorities including J&K Police made voluntary disclosure of Security Related Expenditure (SRE) from 1990 onwards. As soon as Governor’s rule ended the other public authorities especially the office of Relief Commissioner Jammu who was supposed to make this information public didn’t adhere to the orders Governor voiced for replacing culture of secrecy with openness and transparency. This openness can never be achieved unless the Public Authorities (Govt and Semi Govt organizations ) make pro active disclosure of information. This disclosure is an important part of Right to Information Act and section 4 (1) (b) of J&K RTI Act 2009 and Central RTI Act of 2005 lays emphasis on it.
Voluntary disclosure of Information ?
Voluntary disclosure of information is an essential aspect of J&K RTI Act 2009 and Central RTI Act 2005. Under section 4 (1) (b) of J&K RTI Act 2009, the Public Authorities which includes Government departments , semi Government departments , corporations ,councils, boards , commissions etc are supposed to make voluntary or proactive disclosure of information. The disclosure includes circulars , selection list of appointees , official orders , notices, concessions given , beneficiary list of various schemes , estimates , proposals and lot more. All this is to be done in order to ensure transparency and accountability of the public authorities. All these records have to be readily available and must be kept in the public domain through the official Government websites , notice boards etc . People need not to seek this information necessarily under RTI Act as the act impresses upon public authorities to make the pro active disclosure of this information. Under J&K RTI Act 2009 the voluntary disclosure of information was to be done within 120 days of the enactment of the State RTI. The J&K RTI Act 2009 was enacted on March 20th 2009 but even after elapse of almost 7 years the Government departments have miserably failed to adhere to the guidelines of this law. As on date I can say with authority that 80 % of the Government departments , boards , corporations , semi Government department’s etc haven’t made voluntary disclosure of information under the RTI Act guidelines , which is a sheer violation of this law. In-fact J&K State Information Commission (SIC) an autonomous institution to implement of Right to Information in the state tried its level best to grill the Government over non implementation of section 4 (1) (b) of J&K RTI Act 2009 , but the Government hardly paid any attention to SIC’s notices.
Awareness level :
Enactment of legislations have no meaning in a democratic setup unless citizens are benefitted by these laws. RTI Act has been implemented in J&K not because of Government’s cooperation, but it is the peoples movement , media pressure and citizen groups who made all this possible. To create awareness on Right to Information among masses especially the disadvantaged communities , was actually the duty of Government under section 23 of J&K RTI Act 2009 , but from last 7 years not more than seven awareness programmes have been conducted by the Government organizations. They are the violators of this act and this violation has been a deliberate attempt of the Government.
Appeal to Governor :
I would sincerely appeal Governor N N Vohra to call a round table conference on strengthening J&K Right to Information Act. All the stake holders should be invited which includes RTI campaigners, legal experts , NGO’s , media persons and Government functionaries . A clear direction has to be given to Government for ensuring voluntary / pro active disclosure of information through official websites. The Government records should be digitized within a specific time and a committee should be constituted for the same. A massive awareness campaign has to be undertaken and there is a clear mandate for the Government to organize such programmes.
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