Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
Recently I along with some farmers affected by Semi Ring Road project went to meet Collector Land Acquisition in Budgam .The officer happens to be Assistant Commissioner Revenue (ACR) of the district as well. Before the process of land acquisition is undertaken, the Government issues public notices under various sections of J&K Land Acquisition Act. These notices are meant for public and are supposed to be issued in press and other medium. The effected farmers who are the main stakeholders of the proposed land acquisition wanted copies of these notifications as all of these notifications were not made public via print media. When I requested Collector for copies of some notifications, few officials of the Land Acquisition wing intervened and told me “you file an RTI application , all notices are not public “, but the collector who is well versed with the legal aspects of Land Acquisition Act intervened and directed one of the officials to provide the full set of notifications to me. In a similar case apple orchardists of Srinagar’s RanbirGrah village in Shalteng tehsil sought copies of estimates prepared by Chief Horticulture Officer (CHO) of Srinagar few months back. They were also denied the same on one pretext or other. The farmers of Ranbir Grah are also affected by land acquisition and they do not know how much estimate has been made by the CHOs office for their apple trees which would be axed during highway construction. The farmers were supposed to be informed time to time and the estimates prepared for compensation should have been made public by Horticulture Directorate through its official website. The copies of official documents, final estimates , details of apple trees to be felled etc should have been made available to the affected farmers of the villages through village Chowkidars and Lumberdars, but this is not at all been done. Had I along with my colleagues not accompanied the illiterate and semi literate farmers from Ranbir Grah to Chief Horticulture Officers (CHO) office, the villagers would have been in complete dark till date. Infact the estimates prepared in Budgam, Pulwama, Baramulla, Bandipora, Ganderbal and Srinagar are mostly not at all acceptable to affected farmers and villagers. The CHO or Collector Land Acquisition is supposed to make mandatory disclosure of all these documents under Section 4 of J&K Right to Information Act 2009. The disclosure can be made via official websites, print media or asking officials to visit the villages and make public announ-cement in the regard.
Infact under the existing Land Acquisition Act which is an 83 year old law the Government has to hire people who will go and make drumbeating inside the villages , towns or cities where land is to be acquired for public purpose. Leave aside drumbeating, the officials even do not make public announcements on PA systems or through masjids or temple loudspeakers.
Obligation on Public Authorities
Section 4 (1) of J&K RTI Act 2009 makes following obligations on every public authority :
(a) Maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the Right to Information under the Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerized are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerized and connected through a network all over the State on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated ;
(b) Publish within one hundred and twenty days (120) from the commencement of the Act.- (i) the particulars of its organization, functions and duties ; (ii) the powers and duties of its officers and employees : (iii) the procedure followed in the decision making process, including channels of supervision and accountability ; (iv) the norms set by it for the discharge of its functions ; (v) the rules, regulations, instructions. manuals and records, held by it or under its control or used by its employees for discharging its functions; (vi) a statement of the categories of documents that are held by it or under its control; (vii) the particulars of any arrangement that exists for consultation with, or representation by, the members of the public in relation to the formulation of its policy or implementation thereof ; (viii) a statement of the boards, councils, committees and ‘ other bodies consisting of one or more persons constituted as its part or for the purpose of its advice, and as to whether meetings of those boards, councils, committees and other bodies are open to the public, or the minutes of such meetings are accessible for public; (ix) A directory of its officers and employees; (x) The monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations; (xi) The budget allocated to each of its agency, indicating the particulars of all plans, proposed expenditures and reports on disbursements made; (xii) The manner of execution of subsidy programmes, including the amounts allocated and the details of beneficiaries of such Programmes; (xiii) Particulars of recipients of concessions’ permits or authorizations granted by it ; (xiv) Details in respect of the information, available to or held by it, reduced in an electronic form ; (xv) The particulars of facilities available to citizens for obtaining information. including the working hours of a library or reading room’ if maintained for public use; (xvi) The names, designations and other particulars of the Public Information Officers; (xvii) Such other information as may be prescribed; and thereafter update these publications every year; (c) Publish all relevant facts while formulating important policies or announcing the decisions which affect public; (d) Provide reasons for its administrative or quasi-judicial decisions to affected Persons.
(2) It shall be a constant endeavor of every public authority to take steps in accordance with the requirements of clause (b) of subsection (f) to provide as much information suomotu to the public at regular intervals through various means of communications, including internet, so that the public have minimum resort to the use of the Act to obtain information.
Conclusion :
The voluntary disclosure of information was to be made within 120 days of enactment of RTI Act. J&K RTI Act 2009 was enacted on March 20th 2009 and the Government should have made proactive disclosures by the end of July 2009. Even after 9 years 80 -85 % of the Government controlled organizations haven’t adhered to this legal guideline which is a clear violation of RTI law. Why shall the horticulture department keep citizens of state in dark even about the compensation they are entitled to get during land acquisition in lieu of fruit trees which are felled during road construction ? A farmer is not aware how many fruit bearing trees will be axed in his orchard ? He is not aware whether the assessment is right or wrong ? He is not shown assessment made in other villages ? Section 4 of RTI Act if implemented in letter and spirit would have addressed all these issues. State Information Commission (SIC) has issued several notices to Government on the violation of section 4 (voluntary disclosure). Two deadlines announced by SIC on this issue have also exhausted ? What is the future course of action to be taken by State Information Commission (SIC)?
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