Sir,
Kindly refer to the article “Obsolete Information on Govt websites “published in De, 9 July, 2017 written by Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat. He has correctly pointed out the shortcomings noticed by the writer after a random internet surfing. Despite issuance of notice by the Chief Information Commissioner of the J&K state that stressed for voluntary or suo-moto disclosure of information under Section 4(1) (b) of J&K RTI Act 2009, it has been pointed out by the writer that Public Authorities of the state have not taken various steps as recommended by the CIC in exercise of the powers conferred under section 22(5) of J&K RTI Act 2009.Recently I also wanted to submit complaint to Executive Engineer PHE Div- 1 on his official email ID xenphecity1 as mentioned in their website regarding inadequate supply of water but the same was not delivered despite repeated attempts. Even the mail sent to CM on her official email ID cmsect-jk@nic.in was not delivered stating the reasons “email address has been deactivated”. It may not be out of place to mention here that democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold Government and its instrumentalities accountable to the governed. As per section 7 (1) of the said Act the Public Information Officer on receipt of a request under section 6 shall, as expeditiously as possible, and in any case within thirty days of the receipt of the request, either provide the information on payment of such fee as maybe prescribed or reject the request for any of the reasons specified in section 8 and9. However, it has been experienced that the Public Authorities are not adhering to the time schedule as provided in the RTI Act for providing the desired information.
It has also been experienced that instead of complete information as asked by the applicant partial information is furnished by avoiding vital information intentionally. And if aggrieved by the decision of the PIO when 1st appeal is preferred for non furnishing or incomplete furnishing of information the same is also disposed off by the 1st Appellant Authority in a very casual manner without examining the appeal properly, rather a ditto reply as furnished by the Public Authority is provided to the information seeker. I would, therefore, request that Official team of State Information Commission may kindly be constituted to check the correctness of information uploaded by each Ministry/ Department /subordinate offices of the State Govt as required under RTI Act 2009.
Yours etc……
S.S.Jamwal,
New Plots Jammu
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