RTI being sabotaged in J&K: NPP

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 19: Expressing grave concern over the fast collapsing RTI Institutions in the State, chairman of NPP and former minister Harshdev Singh has blamed the BJP-PDP for making the said progressive piece of legislation in the State almost defunct.
He said that out of the three members of State Information Commission (SIC), two including CIC had retired months back and the lone Information Commissioner was due to retire within a month or so but the Government had failed to initiate any process for reconstitution of the said SIC.  He regretted that repeated calls from the Civil Society, RTI activists and journalists for appointment of Information Commissioners and for strengthening the RTI mechanism, the State Government had failed to initiate any action thus allowing the RTI enactment to die its own death.
Ridiculing the tall claims of the Government of good governance, transparency and accountability, Mr Singh observed that the single most powerful legislation on transparency was being sabotaged by the Government itself.  He said that not only had the Government turned a blind eye to the structural shortcomings in the Act and its implementation but had also allowed vested interests and regressive forces to defeat the path and purpose of the most potent law against corruption.  He said that the enactment of the RTI Act had generated a lot of hope amongst the common masses especially the disadvantaged sections and aggrieved citizens.
Regretting utter lack of accountability in the present dispensation coupled with growth of patronized corruption, Mr Singh attributed the malaise to the extremely in-effective RTI mechanism in the state.   He said that a defunct SIC further added to the confusion as a single Information Commissioner, for the entire State only amounted to a cruel joke with the SIC.
Blaming the present Government for sabotaging the Act, NPP leader said that the Ministers and MLAs particularly those of BJP believed that while transparency was good for others, they should be left free and unquestioned.

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