Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 11: In what could be the testimony of non-serious approach towards the Right to Information Act, several departments of the State Government have not been taking seriously the repeated instructions on implementation of provisions of this revolutionary piece of legislation.
Since June 2009, several detailed circulars have been issued by the General Administration Department requesting the departments to ensure implementation of the provisions of Section 4 of the J&K RTI Act regarding voluntary disclosure of information by the public authorities. Astonishingly, large number of departments have not adhered to these directions during the past five years.
The first circular was issued by General Administration Department (GAD) on June 5, 2009 whereby attention of all the Administrative Secretaries was brought to the provisions of Section 4 of the RTI Act. Not only circulars, even verbal instructions were issued to the Administrative Secretaries during the meetings of the Committee of Secretaries held during the last five years.
However, while reviewing the status of implementation of the provisions of Section 4 of the Act by different departments, it has been observed that some of the departments do not have a website and in cases where the departments have constructed their official websites, these are not being updated regularly and the requisite data has not been uploaded.
The issue once again came up for discussion in the meeting of the Committee of Secretaries held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary on April 1, 2014. On the instructions of the Chief Secretary, the GAD has issued fresh circular impressing upon all the Administrative Secretaries to ensure implementation of the provisions of Section 4 of the J&K RTI Act in their administrative as well as subordinate departments, in letter and spirit by hosting all requisite information on the official websites and their periodical updation.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel