Sir,
This refers to your editorial ‘Senior Citizens Healthcare’ (Excelsior 28.4.2018). This is a very important issue and Government especially the Health and Medical Education Department has not at all made voluntary disclosure of the same on its official website under section 4 (1) of RTI Act 2009. Recently I went through a news item in a local newspaper. A senior citizen namely Vinod Kumar Vaid R/O Upper Roop Nagar Jammu wanted information under RTI Act about various health care facilities meant for senior citizens in Government hospitals.
The senior citizen instead of being provided information was misled by the Under Secretary/ PIO in Health and ME Education Department Civil Secretariat Jammu (now transferred). The said KAS officer without any reasons forwarded his RTI application to other public authorities (Directorate of Health Jammu / Srinagar and GMC Jammu / Srinagar etc by misusing section 6 (3) of J&K RTI Act 2009.
This information was very much available with the PIO. The old person finally knocked the doors of State Information Commission. I am glad that Chief Information Commissioner Khurshid Ganai took serious view of this case and issued penalty show cause notice to the KAS officer who is now transferred. I hope the officer will be taken to task by Information Commission and departmental inquiry be initiated against him. Instead of helping and assisting senior citizens our officers at the helm of affairs are creating hurdles for them. CIC Mr Khurshid Ganai must ensure this information be proactively made available on official websites of Health & ME department civil secretariat plus Directorate of Health Jammu / Kashmir , GMC s and all District and Sub Division level websites. On one hand, Government claims through radio and TV advertisements that lot of facilities are available for our senior citizens healthcare in Government hospitals but when these elderly people seek these details they are shown the door or provided misleading information by our senior officers who claim to be so called Public Servants.
Yours etc….
Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Khan
RTI Activist
Kathidarwaza, Srinagar
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