Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
Right to Information Act (RTI Act 2005) was enacted at national level in the year 2005. Due to constitutional reasons this law is not applicable to J&K state. A year before enactment of RTI Act 2005 , J&K Government enacted its own version of RTI law in 2004 (J&K RTI Act 2004) which was repealed in 2009 when J&K Assembly enacted a more robust J&K RTI Act 2009 which is at par with central RTI legislation of 2005. We have been using RTI Act right from 2004. In case of central Government organizations operational in J&K and outside J&K we use RTI Act 2005 and till date not even a single public authority under control of Government of India raised a question about non applicability of RTI Act 2005 in Jammu & Kashmir. In past I have personally sought details under RTI Act 2005 from several public authorities having offices in Srinagar. We have been provided information by BSNL , Military Engineering Service-Air Force (MES), National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and few other Government organizations. Recently I was shocked to see a reply from a responsible officer of Military Engineering Service (MES) who is a Garrison Engineer in Air Force 1 wing at Srinagar.
Case history
Riyaz Ahmad Rather and Raashid Asharf two young men from Kralpora Budgam were hired by two different contractors several years back to work as Fitter Generator Mechanic (FGM) and DG set operator at old Airfield Srinagar (Air-force 1 wing). They had to be paid Rs 7500/- as monthly salary but only Rs 3000 was actually paid to them but they were made to sign the documents for having received Rs 7500/- every month which was paid to them in cash. Hailing from poor families they did not raise their voice for several years. When the online payments were made mandatory from last year, the contractors had to be transparent while disbursing monthly salaries. The FGM and DG Set operator being a highly skilled job, both Riyaz and Rashid were entitled for monthly salary of Rs 9840/- but the officers in Air Force 1 wing Srinagar told all the contractual employees to pay back half of the salary to contractor. This was being done in connivance with the contractor and Junior Engineer (JE) concerned. All the employees did not utter a word , but being educated and qualified enough Riyaz and Raashid raised their voice and for doing so they were fired. They became jobless and instead some unqualified persons were hired by the contractor most of whom are under matric and not having requisite ITI diplomas. It is alleged that EPF of Riyaz and Raashid was also not credited into their accounts. After being aggrieved they sought help from J&K RTI Movement and I personally drafted the application under RTI Act 2005 (central RTI Act).
Information sought ?
Information seeker Raashid Ashraf sought following information under RTI Act from the Garrison Engineer :
As per the tender document staff to be hired were supposed to be Class X th pass with ITI diploma, do the hired staff especially those hired by JE Mr Ansari have this qualification ?
Give me list of all the appointees , with name parentage and address ?
Provide certified copies of their qualification certificates as well
Provide shift wise attendance of these appointees and their pass numbers
After 30 days the Garrison Engineer (GE) of Air Force 1 wing returned the RTI application to Raashid along with postal order of Rs 10 via speed post . Vide his official communication No : 1125 /RTI/18 /E 1 Pay Dated 26th April 2018 Mr D K Kostha Garrison Engineer (GE) who is the designated Public Information Officer (PIO) told Rashid so casually that since RTI Act is not applicable in J&K , he cannot provide the information. The letter from GE Air Force 1 Wing Srinagar reads” Refer your application dated 26.3.2018 . It is submitted that RTI Act 2005 is not applicable to State of Jammu & Kashmir . In view of the above your application along with the postal order bearing No : 40 F 602965 Dated : 23.3.2018 for Rs 10 /- is returned herewith unactioned ”
Conclusion
I am unable to understand which legal expert has guided this Garrison Engineer (GE) who is not aware of the provisions of RTI Act 2005 which was enacted more than 13 years back. Raashid is not the first applicant who intended to seek information under RTI from MES / Air Force 1 wing Srinagar . In-fact I have also sought information from the same organization around 6 -7 years back and the then GE never said that RTI Act 2005 is not applicable to J&K. On routine dozens of applications under RTI are filed in this particular office quarterly. The officer in order to mislead the poor information seeker with the intention that he has no knowledge of RTI law told him that this law does not apply to MES / Air Force 1 Wing Srinagar. Central RTI Act 2005 is not applicable to public authorities under the control of Jammu & Kashmir Government , but the central Government organizations operating in J&K are very much covered under RTI Act 2005. For sake of an argument if central RTI law is not applicable to MES / Air Force 1 Wing Srinagar, then the PIO (GE) must have told the information seeker to apply under J&K RTI Act 2009. Neither the officer is ready to share information under central RTI law nor he wants the applicant to apply under J&K RTI Act 2009. Does this mean that RTI laws (both central / state) does not apply is MES at all ? Residents of J&K have a right to access information from them. Even we have the right to seek information from central Government organizations operating outside state as well. From last 13 years I along with my colleagues have filed as many as 200 RTI applications before various central Government organizations which includes Ministry of Defence , Finance and several other organizations . We never got such a silly reply during last 13 years. This seems to be a deliberate attempt of withholding information and this is a serious and criminal act under RTI Act 2005.
It is urged upon MES to train its officers on RTI Act by holding capacity building workshops and seminars. We are in-fact ready to volunteer ourselves for the same any time. RTI Movement will take this case to Central Information Commission (CIC) New Delhi by filing a complaint against the concerned GE. CIC has the power to penalize the erring PIOs under section 17 of RTI Act 2005. We will also formally write to Engineer in Chief (EnC) of Military Engineering Service (MES) New Delhi and request him to order an inquiry into this case. How can a Contractor hired by Air Force 1 wing of MES sack employees from the job for speaking truth and fighting against injustice?
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